Why must police cars be marked?

Factual Questions
41

Here in Southwest Florida, the only cop cars I see are marked/unmarked Crown Victorias. Lee County Sheriff uses them, city police use them, FHP uses them. One kid in my class got pulled over by an unmarked Camaro on his way out of Cape Coral en route to school one morning, but that’s the only special car I’ve heard of (and I’ve yet to see it). The Lee County Sheriff sometimes does speed patrols in the morning on the Sanibel Causeway, usually with 4 or 5 motorcycles, a white Crown Vic, and a Dodge Durango with the tailgate open and 3 or 4 cops sitting on the bumper, talking and aiming the radar at traffic. I don’t see how they catch anyone that way - they’re visible for hundreds of yards.

The unmarked cop cars I’ve seen have all had lights installed on the dash or behind the rear-view mirror. And most of them have plates that are a different color - government plates in Florida are black text on yellow for city or county vehicles, and the FHP has blue text on white plates which all start with “FHP” (for example, “FHP 0123”).

42

I talked to a highway patrol officer this afternoon who was hiding off a freeway exit to nail any traffic violator. He told me that there are unmarked police cars used in undercover work and/or by detectives in special situations. They have the authority to chase after reckless drivers here in Cal. But by the same token, he admitted that this is rarely done.