Aggressive Driving: Special Vehicles
A State Police "low-profile" patrol car — of the agency's most effective weapons against aggressive driving.
One of the problems police officers encounter in prosecuting and convicting aggressive drivers is the difficulty in gathering evidence of their unlawful actions, such as unsafe lane changes, failures to signal, tailgating, ignoring yield signs, and running red lights. To help obtain such evidence, the NYSP added specially designed vehicles to its fleet.
Road Rage Vans
In December 1997, the NYSP introduced the Road Rage Van. The video equipped, unmarked vans are paired with marked patrol cars to stop and arrest aggressive drivers. Initially, the vans were assigned to the area encompassing Rockland, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster and Greene counties.
High-tech police car targets aggressive drivers
Introduced in May 1998, new video-equipped, low profile (LP) cars are marked as New York State Police patrol cars but do not have the telltale emergency lights on the roof. Thus, although easily identified as a police vehicle at close range, they are less detectable at a distance. Patrolling statewide, the LP car can mingle with traffic and videotape aggressive drivers before being identified as a police vehicle.
The traditional lights have been replaced by strobe lights mounted in several unconventional locations - headlights, grille, tail lamps, turn signals, backside of the exterior rearview mirror housings - and on the interior passenger visor (which flips down). When activated, the strobe lights emit high intensity flashes which make the LP car even more visible than conventional marked cars.
On-board video equipment includes two cameras - one facing forward, the other backward - that feed into a recording deck, ensuring all angles are covered.