PHOENIX β A Gilbert Republican lawmaker wants to limit the number of unmarked cars that police can use for traffic stops.
And the few unmarked vehicles they would get to drive would at least have to be inscribed with the name of the agency on the right front door.
Rep. Travis Grantham said he wants the public to be suspicious of being pulled over by βsome creepβ driving what might actually be a private vehicle outfitted with some red-and-blue lights in the grille.
Grantham acknowledged that his HB 2830 also means that police agencies would be limited to no more than 10% of their vehicles doing traffic enforcement being without the traditional lights on the roof and markings all around the front, sides and back. But he said that doesnβt bother him.
βI just donβt want to encourage law enforcement to go undercover on the general public all the time,β Grantham told Capitol Media Services.
βThereβs no better way than a real police car, with a uniformed police officer in it, with lights all over it and markings all over it, that, in itself, prevents crime,β he said. βI donβt want to see our police departments, which I love, going to these fully undercover, unmarked, super-secret police type tactics, which I actually think can be quite dangerous.β
But the driving force, Grantham said, is making the driving public skeptical of being pulled over by anything that doesnβt look like a police car.
As crafted, HB 2830 forbids the use of anything thatβs totally unmarked for traffic enforcement. Instead, police could use what the measure calls a βspecially markedβ law enforcement vehicle.
It would not need the lights on top or the markings all around. But at the very least it would have to have the name and logo of the law enforcement agency on the right door.
And anyone using that vehicle would have to be dressed in an official law enforcement uniform, βincluding shoulder patches, a badge and any other identifying insignia normally used by the employing law enforcement agency.β
What that means, Grantham said, is anyone who is stopped by what appears to be an unmarked vehicle can demand that the person making the stop open the right side door of the vehicle to display the marking.
At that point, he said, the motorist can be assured that itβs a real officer making the stop and not someone playing a cop.
βIt gives the public some peace of mind,β Grantham said. βIβm terrified, just so you know, with the rash of these unmarked cars and these guys dressed in what appears to be some sort of uniform pulling over folks randomly in the middle of our city and issuing them tickets.β
A ticket, though, is the least of his worries.
βIβm actually fearful a young woman or a young man or whatever is going to be pulled out of their car at some point and put in the back seat of an unmarked fake police car and perhaps driven off and have some horrible crime committed against them,β Grantham said
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