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John Whitehead's Commentary

Stealth Police: Why You Won't Know the Cops are Watching You

John Whitehead
When the unmarked patrol car first came on the scene, it was little more than a nuisance. A few unlucky speeders found themselves tricked by the plain gray or white sedans, but there weren't very many of them. That could all change now, as new stealth police cars start to get a grip on the patrol vehicle market.

The trend started in the mid-'90s. States such as New Jersey began ordering patrol cars without the trademark bubble lights on top. Instead, strobe lights were implanted in the windshields, light casings and other parts of the car body. Without the roof lights, the cars blended into traffic more easily, making it possible for police to approach unsuspecting motorists.

Other states went with different vehicle models. Instead of the traditional sedan, sports cars and sport utility vehicles patrolled the streets. In Arkansas last year, state police took to the highways in Chevrolet Camaros and Dodge Durangos. And they caught more than just speeders. One trooper in a Durango apprehended a driver with more than six pounds of cocaine and eleven pounds of marijuana.

As police departments head into the twenty-first century, these stealth cars are getting even more popular. In El Paso, Texas, the Border Patrol ordered the newest version last summer to test on their patrols. The Fast Trax Ford Crown Victoria incorporates 26 strobe lights instead of a roof rack. Officials with the Patrol boasted that the new car was the "wave of the future" and, given a successful run in El Paso, would begin showing up in law enforcement agencies around the country. Police officials using these stealth cars are convinced that the vehicles make them more effective in the community, and they claim that private citizens agree.

Despite these claims, however, not everyone is thrilled about the stealth movement. For starters, this trend isn't simply about catching more speeders and drug traffickers. Rather, it's part of a larger move in society toward the government monitoring its citizens.

These stealth cars are just another step down the same road as surveillance cameras at traffic lights and in public parks. They're founded on the same principle that caused law enforcement agencies to bitterly fight the computer encryption movement. It's the idea that Americans need to sacrifice their constitutional freedoms in the name of catching a few more criminals.

Increasingly, some law enforcement agents think that the answer to the crime problem is going undercover to apprehend criminals. Of course, going undercover means that they're watching people who don't know that they're being watched. And since police can't know who the criminals are before they catch them, they have to watch everybody.

Whether it's checking on every car that passes through a given stoplight, every couple that wanders through a public park holding hands or the oblivious motorist on his morning commute, you can bet that someone is watching. And as the real criminal gets away, it is the law-abiding citizen who becomes the target of the stealth police.

At one time, the police were visible members of the community. Advertising their presence was an integral part of their job description. They were about preventing crime, not just nabbing criminals. Every citizen on the street was presumed innocent and in need of protection, rather than guilty and in need of arresting.

All too often, though, today's law enforcement official sits in a stealth car or in front of a bank of surveillance camera monitors or on the other end of a computer connection. It's time for Americans to start noticing the stealth police, before these invisible officers sneak away with the Bill of Rights.

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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