Undercover Police Cars are Ticket Machines

The police have an important role in society: to keep the peace. Law enforcement officers are known as peace officers for a reason. Their role isn't to spy on the citizens. Their role is to assist citizens with emergencies and keep order in society. Undercover police cars do not help perform the role of a peace officer.

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Marked police cars are easily spotted. With all the decals and light bars, people driving on the road instantly slow down and evaluate how they are driving to avoid a citation. A marked police car's presence helps keep roads safe. Not only that, if citizens are in dire need of help, they can easily flag a marked police car passing by. Police sometimes place dummy cars with no officer inside so that people think about how they are driving. This therefore creates safer roads.

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Unmarked police cars, on the other hand, are not easily spotted. An unmarked police car's presence is often unknown. This means that drivers do not slow down and evaluate how they are driving, which makes roads more dangerous. This lack of change in behavior allows the unmarked police car to pull over a driver committing a basic traffic violation, therefore collecting money for the department. Unmarked police cars do not make the road safer. They simply generate money for the police departments through citations. Traffic citations and laws are meant to keep roads safe, not to take money out of the average American's pocket, only to be wasted.

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Undercover police cars spy on the average citizen. They watch the every move of a person and swoop in when a mistake is made. This creates a feeling of intimidation and a lack of trust between the people and the police. If police want to maintain a good relationship with the community, they need to be more open. Police must stop staying hidden from the community. To do so, they need to use less undercover police cars for patrol routes.

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Undercover police cars do have their potential uses. For example, if police want to make a drug bust without being seen, undercover police cars are very useful. However, the common current usage of an undercover police car as a patrol vehicle meant to generate money for the police department through citations defeats all the potential benefits of unmarked police cars and creates less trust between the people and the police.

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