[118458] in Cypherpunks
IP: The Secret Signs of Local Cops
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Tue Sep 28 19:05:03 1999
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Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 18:34:50 -0400
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From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 11:04:12 -0500
Subject: IP: The Secret Signs of Local Cops
From: terminal1@ar-chronicle.com
To: ignition-point@precision-d.com
Sender: owner-ignition-point@precision-d.com
Reply-To: terminal1@ar-chronicle.com
Arkansas Chronicle (see site for picture of sign)
http://ar-chronicle.com/NationalNews.htm
Stickers may lead to mass confusion with cops
Now that the "cover" is blown, these small
stickers, could be used to send the "wrong
message"
by Alex Hutchings, Jr.
Arkansas Chronicle Staff Writer
The hour is late and the Little Rock city cops driving along I-40 in Little
Rock are on the prowl for drunks behind wheels. A car accelerates rapidly
up the on-ramp, pulling ahead of the police cruiser by about three blocks.
Then, the car accelerates rapidly and hops into the far left lane where it
soon reaches a speed of over eighty miles per hour.
The cops accelerate quickly too. Just as they get about 50-feet off the
bumper of the speeding Chevy, the driver of the police car trips a switch
that turns the expressway into a moving light show of high intensity blue
and white light. His partner reaches for the microphone to call in the tag
number of the traffic stop when his trained eye spots a familiar sign - a
small black sticker in the driver side rear window - with a thin blue line
through it. He places the mike back in the holder as both vehicles cruise
to the
shoulder.
The driver of the police car chuckles as he exits his vehicle. He stands
behind his door and shouts a friendly greeting at the other driver -
telling him to try to keep his car off the telephone poles tonight. And
with that, what would otherwise be a serious DUI investigation traffic stop
turns into a chuckle.
Whether or not the driver of the suspect vehicle really, truly was a police
officer may now become a bit of a mystery to the Little Rock police
officers who turned the suspect loose. It seems that one of the best kept
secrets of law enforcement is not such a secret after all.
Devised as a silent means of alerting other police officers that the car
bearing the "thin blue line" sticker was driven either by a cop or member
of the immediate family, the stickers have been popping up on private cars
owned by cops from coast to coast over the last year.
The origin of the stickers, which are often as not distributed via police
supply stores, is a mystery. No police department or agency would comment
on the stickers or use of them by their officers. Despite the wall of
silence, cruising the parking lot of several police departments yielded
dozens of examples in Little Rock, Tulsa, Atlanta and Dallas where private
cars owned by cops are adorned with the subtle little sticker.
One police equipment supplier in Little Rock said he gives the stickers out
for free - but only to persons he personally knows to be law enforcement
officers. "The big deal used to be the 'Fraternal Order of Police' license
tag medallions. But that tells everybody you're a cop. Besides, anyone can
get one now. The 'thin blue line' stickers came up as a way to let other
cops know that you're an off duty cop - or the spouse of one."
State regulations in Arkansas do not prohibit the placing of such stickers
on a vehicle, so, it's apparently possible for anyone: cops, law-abiding
citizens, habitual drunks or drug-traffickers to place such a sticker on
their vehicle, thereby perhaps eliminating unwanted scrutiny resulting from
their personal driving eccentricities.
One Arkansas State Police official claimed he had never heard of the
stickers, but, a street level cop in Little Rock said, "I'ts not exactly a
'management' sort of thing. It's a clue for street cops and detectives to
be on the lookout for in case you or whoever is driving your car is
broke-down and needs help maybe."
Whatever the reason, if the stickers proliferate, the result may be
widespread "cop confusion," at least until they can devise a new "secret
sign."
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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
