In his book Dave Barry’s Gift Guide, Barry talked about life-size cardboard cutouts of police officers you could give. You could fool dimwitted thugs into thinking you weren’t alone, or put one in the passenger’s seat of your car.
In Czechoslovakia they are apparently using these to slow down traffic. To make them more effective, they’re female officers in miniskirts:
My favorite part:
In Panama, they used to post a cardboard-cutout motorcycle cop by the side of the road on holiday weekends along a deserted stretch of the Panamerican Highway in the western part of the country. I was so tempted to steal it, but resisted when I thought about what would happen if they caught me with it in the back of my car.
On an unrelated note, we had a lot of fun in my fraternity when someone stole a lifesize cardboard cutout of Mrs. Doubtfire from a local movie theater. The thing would pop up everywhere. Parties, meals, the shower, staring at you from the window as you come home from class, the backseat of your car, staring at you while you’re sleeping. It’s was pretty fucking creeping to be making out with a girl and all of a sudden see Mrs. Doubtfire peering in the window at you.
I stole one once. I drove about 5 miles before I realized it was a real officer.:eek:
When I see a fake officer or even an empty police car parked with nobody inside, it slow me down and keeps me on my toes to avoid infractions. Retail stores use a something similar of an audio nature. for example, you can be walking around an ACO Hardware store and hear a message like, “Security to aisle 32.” They don’t even have no stinkin’ aisle 32, but who knows, they must be watching. These things work on a subliminal basis and more in my case.
Way back in 1949-51 when I was in Japan, they had placed cutouts of stern looking police officers at various points on the street to slow traffic. Back then there were very few vehicles on the road other than taxi cabs and US military ones. The latter paid no attention at all, and from the rides I took in taxis, I found they did not either.
Maybe they would have gone even faster without the phony cops, who knows?
They occasionally trot out “Officer Dummy” around here-they just stick him, replete with cap, in a patrol car and park it next to a major thoroughfare. Sometimes, once the locals are wise to him, they put a real officer in there, and he’ll nab a few people for various infractions who think they’re passing the dummy.
Here in Thailand the police use full body dummies.
They are actually better at preventing and combating any kind of crime than the bone and flesh ones… :smack:
And they might be among the few honest cops here, although I may have seen even some of them pocketing a bribe. 
Oh it’s still a dummy in the car, only this one can work the controls.
Cardboard cops were widely used in California at one time----back in the 1960s, I think.
Yeah, for 20 minutes.
Pedantic nitpick: no Czechoslovakia anymore. Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (aka Slovakia) in the “Velvet Divorce” of January 1, 1993.
I’ve read about studies showing that almost any full sized cut out will tend to reduce shop lifting. Apparently they work even once people realize what they are. Pretty bizarre stuff.
I read a study (which I am too lazy to look up but I think I found it on Mind Hacks) that said even a painting of an eye on a wall could induce people to more moral behavior. The mere suggestion, even symbolic, that someone could be watching, was already a powerful trigger.
So maybe they could try just making street signs with eyes.
