[Drivingforfun]

Driving out of London today I saw blue lights in my rear view mirror, then they seemed to stop, then start. As they got closer I realised they were turning them off at each set of red lights. When it reached me it was a battered 25 year old transit van with a broken wing mirror, and before I could move it turned its lights off again so I presumed it to be some joker or a traveller type using them illegally to cut through the traffic. However when the lights went green they switched them back on again - but the 2 cars in front too - both much smarter cars i.e. more what I'd consider unmarked police cars

I've always been one of those wishing people to mind their business when I read a "why was the police outside my house"... but just genuinely wondering what it could be...

Would it be a very VERY undercover van?? My dad told me there were detectives who used to go undercover to the point they'd blend in with drugs gangs for several weeks... a bit like method actors... Would the police go so undercover to the point their van wasn't MOT-worthy?

[olduser]

If parts fell off, and policemen fell out, it could have been the Keystone Cops otherwise, very odd.🤨

[Drivingforfun]

On the way in I also saw a very square, black police thing... wouldn't describe it as a van, more a portable bunker, with blue lights on surely going way too fast for physics to allow, I'd like to know what engine was in it

Among other things...Too much excitement in one day for a bumpkin like me 😆

[Nick]

That does sound odd @Drivingforfun - did they all go off in the same direction? Definitely sounds like some sort of joined up operation, doing what though, who knows!

[Drivingforfun]

@Nick yeah the cars went off and the van followed; the black bunker thing was in the morning, separate event

I wonder if the van had left some kind of decisive struggle and had someone or something on board that was valuable 🤔

But then why did the police cars wait at the red lights and not clear the way till they went green

It's fun guessing 😆

[Nick]

Wait - I missed the "black bunker thing" This makes me even more curiouser!! What could that have been I wonder? Was it maybe like a prison transporter van?

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Drivingforfun

On the way in I also saw a very square, black police thing... wouldn't describe it as a van, more a portable bunker, with blue lights on surely going way too fast for physics to allow, I'd like to know what engine was in it

Among other things...Too much excitement in one day for a bumpkin like me 😆

You will have to lie down in a darkened room to recover.😉

Could be boarder force van?
You'll be OK if you have your phone ID. 🙄

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Nick

Wait - I missed the "black bunker thing" This makes me even more curiouser!! What could that have been I wonder? Was it maybe like a prison transporter van?

I think prison vans are white, and don't have blue lights, owned by G4S or SERCO, they do look boxy.

[TC1474]

This is quite common in some areas.

We used to have an old Mk1 Escort Van and an old 3.0 V6 MK 1 Transit on Traffic which we used to use for observing disqualified drivers or suspect vehicles.

We had an old BMW R75/6 (the original drum brake version) which was stripped down to an unfaired bike and looked nothing like our operational bikes that we would use for surveillance purposes and allowed us to get through traffic quickly.

So what you saw might well have been a genuine Police vehicle from a specialist department.

[Drivingforfun]

That's interesting @TC1474. I remember watching a documentary on the firearms cops that follow and then ambush cars that are carrying armed criminals. They used all sorts from posh SUVs to 20 year old Minis in order to blend in with the traffic.

[Rolebama]

During my time with the AA, when Met Police joined, I saw all sorts of vans and bikes in use. On each occasion, I was asked, very politely, to keep to myself what I had seen. I will share though what I thought was a masterpiece. It was a mobile home type vehicle with camera mounts at all the windows. The inside had been stripped out to make room for a table and chairs. The clever part was that from the outside, when you looked in the windows, there were those 3D photos that just showed the inside of a normal mobile home, complete with cooker, sink, cushions etc and all the paraphernalia you would associate with a mobile home. I was told there was also a set of photos for night use.

[Rolebama]

I was on one of the narrow-ish bendy, undulating country lanes local to me last night. I saw flashing blue lights coming up behind, so I pulled into a field entrance to let them pass. As they got closer, I realized it was an ordinary car, but as it went up and down on the undulations, their headlights were giving off a blue cast. I'm not aware of seeing this before, but wondered if it was a one-off.

[Drivingforfun]

@Rolebama

I might experience something similar to what you're talking about. I get something similar on a daily (nightly) basis, from in front and behind – maybe because my car is lower than yours (Mini)?

Half the time it's out the corner of the eye but usually with a second proper glance it's not too misleading. I've found it's something I just got used to – real blue lights appear quite obviously different, in my case anyway.

I'm quite sure it's always – at least certainly most of the time – LED lights, which are more on the colder/blue spectrum so when they hit the eye at a certain angle would maybe make sense.

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by Drivingforfun

That's interesting @TC1474. I remember watching a documentary on the firearms cops that follow and then ambush cars that are carrying armed criminals. They used all sorts from posh SUVs to 20 year old Minis in order to blend in with the traffic.

We used certain vehicles when going after the bad guys, but blending in was a bit of a problem 😁