Undercover operations are crucial for law enforcement, and spotting an undercover police car can be much harder than it seems. A former police officer shares firsthand insights into the challenges of identifying these covert vehicles. After all, there’s a difference between undercover and unmarked. 

An undercover police car and an unmarked unit aren’t necessarily the same thing

Alright, let’s get something straight. “Undercover” and “unmarked” aren’t the same. An unmarked police car will likely be a domestic model vehicle without explicit police markings. An undercover police car, on the other hand, is something else entirely.

Law enforcement may use impounded or seized cars for undercover operations. In those cases, a car may look exactly like any other vehicle in traffic. A former police officer with nearly 30 years of service shared just how tricky it can be to spot an undercover police car compared to an unmarked unit.

Gerry Haverlan was a peace officer from 1981 to 2010. During that time, his work exposed him to undercover (UC) vehicles. “When I was active, there were UC cars that had been seized from drug dealers,” Haverland said on a Quora post. Haverland said that a popular UC car was a Volvo station wagon rather than a typical unmarked police car favorite like a Ford Crown Victoria or Dodge Charger.

“[There were] several nice sports cars that had no visible markings at all. No antenna radio or anything,” Haverland said of his experiences with undercover police cars. For good reason, too. An undercover operation and the safety of the police officers involved may depend on remaining unnoticed. 

Ok, story time. My fire department worked alongside a police department with multiple unmarked Ford Mustang police cars. Most notably, the police department had two pre-facelift S550 Ford Mustangs, one in red and another in blue. Neither of those vehicles sported albatross radio antennae, spotlights, or pushbars.

At a distance, it was difficult to spot that these two S550 Mustangs were anything other than a couple of sports cars in traffic. However, each vehicle was a moment away from activating its emergency lighting and removing all doubt.