It really depends on the area and execution. Though this has been abused heavily by money-hungry police departments, if they solely set their sights on stopping the pieces of shit who weave wildly between cars while going 40+ kph faster than the flow of traffic, which is going 30+ kph faster than the speed limit, I’d welcome the stealthy police presence.

I’d like to go a week without nearly being run off the road by some fucker with a death wish, but the police have decided their priorities.

Yeah, that hiding in the bushes bullshit is some wil-e-coyote nonsense.

My “favorite” are those ghost cars where you only see the police markings if light hits it the right way. “Protect and serve” my ass.

Let's be honest, police trying to catch speeding cars or compulsive phone users with unmarked or hidden cruisers is not the reason why people don't trust the US police.

Once on vacation with my wife, we were on a highway and saw a woman painting her fingernails while driving. She was doing this for a few mins and we heard a police motorcycle coming up from behind and we thought “Oh nice, go get her”… but they pulled us over instead! Apparently where the highway ends it goes from like 75mph to 30mph. Turns out cops hide in the area to catch people. It was a hefty ticket too since we were technically going “40mph” over (like everyone else). During the rest of our stay we noticed motorcycle cops everywhere! They were just camped out all over with radar guns in pairs trying to catch people. We ended up hiring a local lawyer to appear in court (since we had to appear in court for the ticket as well), since we obviously weren’t from the area. It was dismissed and we paid less for the lawyer than it would have been to pay the ticket plus insurance would have gone up each month.

Toronto police tried to pull this crap with the cars. They got so much heat they had to cancel and repaint the cars back. Rightfully the argument is that police are supposed to be highly visible. If someone needs help, how is camouflaging the response vehicle productive?

I am of the firm stance that ghost police cars should never exist. If you need to be undercover to do a thing, then have a plain car.

But ghost cars are literally there to hide for "normal" everyday enforcement. And that type of police work should not involve hiding.

Every time I see police markings on American cars, they look to me like the cops are trying to be cool and hip with their sick fonts. But to me it just screams unprofessional.

This is dumb, police have been hiding behind roadside billboards to catch speeders since the advent of the car. It's nothing new.

I for one am glad for speed enforcement, I fucking hate people who race on highways or city streets, dodging between cars with half a car-length to spare in front and back. Before texting, speeding caused the majority of highway fatalities.

I don't know who I hate more, cops or fucking asshole drivers.

I can see different degrees of this. I agree that I'd rather have a visible presence in traffic monitoring that helps remind people they are being watched for adherence to the rules of the road, and give people who are pushing the limits an opportunity to fix it rather than catch them. So speed traps for money quotas or a door to gain access to vehicles to find or "create" issues (usually based on profiling) is the problem here. As well as abuse of the power to be able to speed and ignore the same rules when an emergency isn't pending, or escalating a traffic stop beyond what it was originally for again because of the power trip.

My response to the typical complaining about speed traps isn't usually first to focus on the police, but to ask, "well, were you speeding or driving recklessly?" When someone gets mad from that question, then the problem may not be (just) the police.

me just assuming every V8 Charger less than five years old, white, red or black and clean is a cop by default

Define irony.

Why do we have pictures of a cop when there are so many of plain clothed, mask wearing, and unidentifiable ICE guys?

Camouflage is one of the five physical traits of a predator, the others more or less apply with enough hand waving

its the five behavior traits all apply very obviously. Stealth, strategy (attack together), territorial (protect their jurisdiction), patience (speed traps), adaptability

In Canada police vehicles are visible as all hell. A blind person can know there is a police car there.