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We also had a special connection with the department of licensing for
our undercover cars; we could get them all registered to bogus names
and addresses, just in case an enterprising criminal somewhere had a
police friend who might innocently run the plate for them. It would
not do at all to have our unmarked cars being registered to our police
department so instead our plates were registered to fictional entities,
like “E.L. Smith, PO Box 55819 Seattle.” When I first started back in
the early ‘90’s, it was common practice for the special full-time
undercover detective to drive cars that had been seized from drug
dealers (or traded from other departments) because of course none of
those cars looked anything like police cars. Because they weren’t. They were all just random cars and they all blended in
terrifically well. Each car would get a police radio added to the dash, and some portable blue lights that could kept hidden from
view but placed on the front dashboard or magnetically set on the roof as needed. Many years later, the local drug operation
undercover detectives convinced the administrative deciders in charge to do away with converting seized cars to department
use, and instead just use rental cars. I don’t know exactly how they pulled that off but in the end, a contract was signed with a
local rental car company to lease out several cars to the officers. The rental car idea was great because the cars were always
virtually brand new – most were never more than a year old - and so they all had low miles and never broke down. It also solved
a common problem of getting identified by a bad guy. Because once a drug dealer figures out what an undercover police car
looks like, that officer and that car were compromised. More than once I head a detective say “Shit I got burned, that guy I was
staking out saw me again in this stupid old car!” And word would go out on the street and soon every dealer and user would be
able to see that car from a mile away. Rental car solution when getting burned: Go trade the car in and get a completely different
one. The rental car company didn’t mind at all; hell some officers switched cars out every other week, getting totally different
makes and models every time. And of course the undercover cops loved the program, cause, hey – new car! Of course there were
no hard-wired radios or lights installed, the officers just used their portable hand-held radios and a magnetic light for the
dashboard or roof.
Alright back to me now: my next officially-issued car was a Ford Crown Victoria. Complete with this funky Federal Signal Vector
halogen lightbar. It had 7 light bulbs and 7 rotating mirrors. Again; pretty darn slick at the time of manufacture and we all
thought it was the wave of the future. Over the years I was issued several different Crown Vics, but they were all pretty much
the same. They weren’t 4 wheel drive and they were all pretty low to the ground, which eventually caused some minor problems
for a few officers - especially the older guys. Getting in and out of a low car 15, 20, 30 times a day can put a strain on one’s back,
as you might imagine. I was fortunate that for some reason, my spine and back held up well to the cars I drove in, even though
the back of my duty belt had two handcuffs and a pepper spray container literally between my waist and seat. A strange feeling
at first, but I got used to it.

Another problem with the Crown Vics was that when the trunks were opened during any rain, water would pour off the open
lid straight into the trunk and onto whatever gear was stowed in there. Kind of a major design flaw but I guess there was no easy
way for the Ford engineers to mitigate that. The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor was manufactured from 1992 to 2011;
enough time for well over a million to be manufactured. It was certainly not the most perfect model car, but it was the most
widely used and most popular cop car for 10 or 15 years, even though they were not perfect.