What, What? An NYPD Squad Car In London!?

Stephen Kosloff

Why, hullo, what's all this then? A bobby on the beat in an NYPD cruiser? An American bloke currently living in England sent us this photo with the note, "I was recently walking around London, by the Thames River. For a split second this struck me as a very normal sighting, until I remembered that I was in London. He said he bought it at an auction or something."

We find it hard to believe that a civilian is allowed to drive an apparently new NYPD cop car around London without any modifications, so we're going to go ahead and assume the driver was lying to Kosloff, and that the NYPD—ever seeking new challenges—has expanded its jurisdiction to London. And it looks like that city's constabulary could use the help, because there's a cyclist on the sidewalk in this photo!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Arts and Events on March 31, 2011 2:59 PM

Comments [rss]

Rob Gorski

http://www.nypdcarhire.com/nyp...

ProbablyHittingOnYou

You win

Petey

Its a copy. Here's a real one. Notice the difference in the "police" near the front.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com...

randomtransplant

Thats a bike share bike being locked up in a civilized manner facilitated by ample bike racks.

So I guess we know the picture really did come from outside the city.

siggiestardust

Funny thing, when I was in London this time last year, my friend and I saw one parked in the lot behind our hotel.

randomtransplant

Their onto you! You didn't really think you could ditch them by flying out of JFK, did you!?

Inspector Spacetime

It was a roll call for a Law and Order shoot, but he didn't read the description carefully enough...

jaycjay

Here's a similar car in the UK. Note the yellow "SHOW CAR" sign in the rear window:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

This one apparently was just sold, could even be the one pictured in this article:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tv...

Plenty of stories online about this, apparently it's a popular thing in the UK to rent NYPD replicas for weddings or whatever. In fact, even Gothamist has covered it before:
http://gothamist.com/2006/04/0...

jibbly

Man, that was 5 YEARS ago! How is Jen supposed to remember stuff like that with baby gaga-googooing all over the place?

shocktheday

NYPD went to London to train their police how to effectively thrust a club into someone's anus through their underwear in front of a dozen witnesses and not get convicted even having one of their own testify against them.

Inconcievable de Impublishable

Woops! Must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque!

oanda

I thought it was a photo of an land rover with british plates in new york for a second.

diablofreak

smashing. time to give the bloody bad teeth brit-bikers by the Thames a bunch of tickets!!!

cmdrogogov

troll wat?

ogie

technically here in NYC you can paint your car to look like an NYPD car, with lights, sirens ,bells and all the other whistles. Only once you use it to 'impersonate' police does it become a crime.

Petey

Except for the words "police" and the red & blue lights, and the NYPD logo and motto (its copyrighted).

youngpro

no, it's not copyrighted, as you cannot copyright anything within the public domain

jaycjay

No, first the lights would be in violation of NY VAT 375:

41. (1) No light, other than a white light, and no revolving, rotating, flashing, oscillating or constantly moving white light shall be affixed to, or displayed on any vehicle except as prescribed herein.

(2) Red lights and certain white lights. One or more red or combination red and white lights, or one white light which must be a revolving, rotating, flashing, oscillating or constantly moving light, may be affixed to an authorized emergency vehicle

While you're on the money that simply creating the appearance that you're a police officer in itself isn't criminal impersonation, all that's necessary to make it a crime is the "intent to induce another to submit" to the false authority you're projecting. (NY Penal Law Section 190.25).

If you were to drive around in that car here, you would be arrested. You would have to convince a judge or jury that you didn't intend for anyone to treat you as if you were a cop. Could you come up with any convincing reason why you driving around in a police car, other than that you intended for people to react as if you were the police?

Spirit of 76

The question would be whether any of those lights operate. If they're just nonfunctional props, would the courts care?

TakeThePledge

Yes. It's like carrying a fake gun and pointing it at people. It doesn't work, but the intent is still the same.

ogie

Yea i wasn't sure about the law, i had met a guy that had a replica NYPD car at a car show. He told me that as long as he didn't pretend to be a cop he was ok. He also told me that the only time he took it out was for car shows and to rent it for tv/movie shoots.