I drive a retired police cruiser, which looks like this. In Virginia, we have local tax decals, which are stuck to the windshield to indicate that the city or county taxes were paid on the vehicle, and they can look like anything since they're designed individually by each municipality. For the town I live in, the sticker takes the form of the city's seal, overlaid on a brightly-coloured shield, with strong borders and a white background.
The shield used in these stickers, combined with the city seal and little other information, looks almost identical to what most people picture in their minds when they envision a police badge. In fact, the insignia for the local police department and fire department are both perfectly indistinguishable from these stickers.
And since Virginia is bizarro-land when it comes to stuff like this, not only do we have these city tax decals that virtually no other place has, but they're required to be displayed right in the centre of the windshield, instead of off to the left like most states.
In short, I'm required to very prominently display a highly-visible sticker on my Police Interceptor's windshield that is indistinguishable from a police insignia sticker when viewed by people who don't live here. There isn't even anything to indicate what the thing is, just the city seal on a shield with a year (plus an expiration date and serial number in smaller print). This wouldn't be so bad, except that the colours change every year, and while the choices sometimes are innocuous (brown, yellow, green, purple, etc), there are years when the colour choice is truly unfortunate for someone who already gets a lot of scrutiny from cops who think someone who drives a Crown Vic is an impersonator waiting to happen, and needs to be taught a lesson.
For example, two years ago, the stickers were bright blue. Like, police blue. I'm not sure how often they cycle the colours, but I've lived here 25 years and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a bright blue shield used on the city stickers (they used navy once). It was certainly interesting, though, to follow the eyes of bystanders when they examined my car as I went by, and it got me out of at least one parking garage fee. It also led to some very uncomfortable scrutinizing looks from cops in Pittsburgh, among other cities/states.
This year, they're extra-bright fire engine red. They've been red before, but it's usually more of a brick tone. Not this year; apparently, the plan is to make all Crown Vic, Explorer, and Charger owners look like firefighter impersonators in 2011.
Admittedly, this is a pretty minor thing to post about in my journal, and there isn't a single thing I can do about it while living here, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable. When I first got my car, I was harassed multiple times a day for several solid days by local police trying to claim I was a police impersonator based solely on the car I chose. I was stopped for as long as they could get away with (I was working as a delivery driver at the time, and this always happened during work, to the point that I was nearly fired for it), searched or threatened with searches (I let them do it the first time, in hopes that it'd be the end of this sillyness), threatened with everything from tickets to arrests, and followed through town on numerous occasions. And, while I never had any intentions of ever doing such a thing, I was really into flashy lights at the time, and planned to put a few toys in my car at some point; nothing illegal (except the headlight flasher I already owned), just some well-concealed amber lights for parking lot fun and the occasional practical use in my work as a delivery driver. Well, not only did the cops kill any such ambitions, but ever since, I feel like I haven't been able to even enjoy the reactions people have to my car. Everyone else sure gets a kick out of driving it, or even riding in it, but I've been trying for years to shake the paranoia that if I get any such amusement from it, some cop is going to pop out from the nearest blind corner and arrest me for it. Irrational, I know, but my car still gets a great deal of police scrutiny, to the point that a hot-headed lead foot driving a bright red Miata would probably get fewer speeding tickets than me.
...This turned into far more of a post than I intended to make, so I guess I'll wrap it up here. I guess the point was "my city's design choice for its local tax stickers is awkward and worrysome for who's desperately trying NOT to be seen as an impersonator when travelling to other states".
The shield used in these stickers, combined with the city seal and little other information, looks almost identical to what most people picture in their minds when they envision a police badge. In fact, the insignia for the local police department and fire department are both perfectly indistinguishable from these stickers.
And since Virginia is bizarro-land when it comes to stuff like this, not only do we have these city tax decals that virtually no other place has, but they're required to be displayed right in the centre of the windshield, instead of off to the left like most states.
In short, I'm required to very prominently display a highly-visible sticker on my Police Interceptor's windshield that is indistinguishable from a police insignia sticker when viewed by people who don't live here. There isn't even anything to indicate what the thing is, just the city seal on a shield with a year (plus an expiration date and serial number in smaller print). This wouldn't be so bad, except that the colours change every year, and while the choices sometimes are innocuous (brown, yellow, green, purple, etc), there are years when the colour choice is truly unfortunate for someone who already gets a lot of scrutiny from cops who think someone who drives a Crown Vic is an impersonator waiting to happen, and needs to be taught a lesson.
For example, two years ago, the stickers were bright blue. Like, police blue. I'm not sure how often they cycle the colours, but I've lived here 25 years and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a bright blue shield used on the city stickers (they used navy once). It was certainly interesting, though, to follow the eyes of bystanders when they examined my car as I went by, and it got me out of at least one parking garage fee. It also led to some very uncomfortable scrutinizing looks from cops in Pittsburgh, among other cities/states.
This year, they're extra-bright fire engine red. They've been red before, but it's usually more of a brick tone. Not this year; apparently, the plan is to make all Crown Vic, Explorer, and Charger owners look like firefighter impersonators in 2011.
Admittedly, this is a pretty minor thing to post about in my journal, and there isn't a single thing I can do about it while living here, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable. When I first got my car, I was harassed multiple times a day for several solid days by local police trying to claim I was a police impersonator based solely on the car I chose. I was stopped for as long as they could get away with (I was working as a delivery driver at the time, and this always happened during work, to the point that I was nearly fired for it), searched or threatened with searches (I let them do it the first time, in hopes that it'd be the end of this sillyness), threatened with everything from tickets to arrests, and followed through town on numerous occasions. And, while I never had any intentions of ever doing such a thing, I was really into flashy lights at the time, and planned to put a few toys in my car at some point; nothing illegal (except the headlight flasher I already owned), just some well-concealed amber lights for parking lot fun and the occasional practical use in my work as a delivery driver. Well, not only did the cops kill any such ambitions, but ever since, I feel like I haven't been able to even enjoy the reactions people have to my car. Everyone else sure gets a kick out of driving it, or even riding in it, but I've been trying for years to shake the paranoia that if I get any such amusement from it, some cop is going to pop out from the nearest blind corner and arrest me for it. Irrational, I know, but my car still gets a great deal of police scrutiny, to the point that a hot-headed lead foot driving a bright red Miata would probably get fewer speeding tickets than me.
...This turned into far more of a post than I intended to make, so I guess I'll wrap it up here. I guess the point was "my city's design choice for its local tax stickers is awkward and worrysome for who's desperately trying NOT to be seen as an impersonator when travelling to other states".