A little off topic - who was it?

[kslager]

A few weeks ago, I was WB on 1-80, I would say in the Grinell/Newton area, and passed about 5 blue crown vic's in a row. They were also WB, all had antennas on top, and had multiple occpants inside. Couldn't quite tell, but they all had an antenna of the roof, which appeard to be a quarterwave. They had Monroe county and Poweshiek county regular Iowa plates. What agency/division would this have been?

[N7DJR]

Wow! This is cool I wish I would have seen this I have a nice Canon camera in my glove box for just such an occasion.

If they were flat tops unmarked and rolling in formation I would say the county Sheriff serving a warrant going to kick in a door someplace! Hard to say without getting a good look at a shoulder patch or uniform shirt. It might be a joint task force convoy to a drug bust or a training group heading to Des Moines?

Back in the Southwest I have seen case workers for the welfare office driving Police Interceptor Crown Vic's with the law enforcement window tint and Gov plates and no logo on the door making it difficult to determine who it is, probation and fire arson inspectors roll Crown Vic's too it's anyone's guess what agency you saw but it a very interesting observation.

Dave

[signal703]

taxi inspectors

[IowaGuy1603]

Could have been a group going to/from the academy for training.

Who knows......the county plates mean nothing as our unmarks have 3 different county regular plates on them

All alike with the the same paint scheme makes me think Federal..........

[N7DJR]

I love the mystery and even better guessing what radio band they are using then try and find them

[Radioman96p71]

For what it's worth, it seems all the federal operations around the metro happen on either the EDACS system in ProVoice or simplex VHF at low power. Sometimes you can catch them on Purple or CIS. For training ops they almost exclusively use the LEIN talkgroups on RACOM all in ProVoice digital so not much to hear there either.

Ive noticed they dont chat a whole lot until right before or after a 'bust' or whatever they were doing. If they are tailing a vehicle they chatter quite a bit but at the power levels they usually run, if you hear them they might be following you!

[newsphotog]

What color blue? If it's smurf blue, then I'd put my money on DOT Vehicle Enforcement. They have many unmarked vehicles in their trademark color that sport civilian plates and quarterwave antennas.

[N7DJR]

Speaking of DOT Vehicle Enforcement check this one out!

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=70EB5...9395&sc=photos

[IowaGuy1603]

Originally Posted by newsphotog

What color blue? If it's smurf blue, then I'd put my money on DOT Vehicle Enforcement. They have many unmarked vehicles in their trademark color that sport civilian plates and quarterwave antennas.

DOT MVE use either Impala's or Chargers for their unmarked investigators nowdays

Most of the CV's are gone


I'm still betting Federal------------------------

Originally Posted by N7DJR

Speaking of DOT Vehicle Enforcement check this one out!

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=70EB5...9395&sc=photos

The new Tahoe's

All MVE's will be in this wrapper now...........................most will be Tahoe's with some Chargers

[N7DJR]

One of those sneaky Impala's you were talking about:
https://u715wg.sn2.livefilestore.com...438.JPG?psid=1

[N7DJR]

Here is another shot of this unknown Impala long VHF antenna side spot light typical law enforcement package Chevy:

https://u715wg.sn2.livefilestore.com...437.JPG?psid=1

[NoSignal]

That's not sneaky at all, nor is it a mystery. Look at the license plate. S50-20.... That's a Jasper County Sheriff car.

Originally Posted by N7DJR

One of those sneaky Impala's you were talking about:
https://u715wg.sn2.livefilestore.com...438.JPG?psid=1

[N7DJR]

Oh That's what those letters and numbers mean S= Sheriff 50 is Jasper County's number and I guess 20 for car or unit 20? In AZ they put a "G" in front of meaningless number on Government vehicles including public transit and school bus plates. Under cover cars there use standard issue plates. I am learning how things are out here in Iowa and been having fun with all this old school radio technology I remember from the 80'es & 90'es everything back there was P-25 and most all the good stuff was encrypted making scanning no fun out there at all. Not to say that wont catch up to me here one day but for now I see this white car with a long VHF antenna and I grab my scanner and set the "Close Call" for VHF and grab him calling his dispatcher calling "10-8"

Dave

[radiowa]

You are somewhat correct, Dave.

S## (this is the county number) - ## (this is the usually the deputies badge number sometimes it's unit number)

All City police vehicles are now issued blue license plates. The plates start off with the county number, and then sequential number following.

All ISP vehicles use the trooper's badge number for the OFFICIAL license plate.

All undercover vehicles are issued standard county plate, however these plates on these vehicles are sequential in numbers as they are processed usually at the same time.

Check out this link if you'd like to see images of license plates: Iowa License Plates & Iowa State Patrol

Originally Posted by N7DJR

Oh That's what those letters and numbers mean S= Sheriff 50 is Jasper County's number and I guess 20 for car or unit 20? In AZ they put a "G" in front of meaningless number on Government vehicles including public transit and school bus plates. Under cover cars there use standard issue plates. I am learning how things are out here in Iowa and been having fun with all this old school radio technology I remember from the 80'es & 90'es everything back there was P-25 and most all the good stuff was encrypted making scanning no fun out there at all. Not to say that wont catch up to me here one day but for now I see this white car with a long VHF antenna and I grab my scanner and set the "Close Call" for VHF and grab him calling his dispatcher calling "10-8"

Dave

[NoSignal]

Not quite.. the plate number doesn't necessarily start with the county number. If you check your link and look at the photos, the plate for Cedar Rapids PD starts with a 500xxx. Cedar Rapids is in Linn county which is county 57.

Also, some departments have customized plates, not all are the standard blue style. University Heights is one that I can think of that has their own plate style.

Originally Posted by radiowa

All City police vehicles are now issued blue license plates. The plates start off with the county number, and then sequential number following.

[IowaGuy1603]

Originally Posted by radiowa

All City police vehicles are now issued blue license plates. The plates start off with the county number, and then sequential number following.

The cars in Jones county also start with 500xxx

Actually almost every police plate I have seen recently anywhere in the state has started with a 5

Originally Posted by radiowa

All undercover vehicles are issued standard county plate, however these plates on these vehicles are sequential in numbers as they are processed usually at the same time.

The three covered plates used by my department have 3 separate county names and are nowhere near sequential

The way covered plates are issued has been published in the past and really isn't rocket science

[IowaGuy1603]

Originally Posted by NoSignal

Not quite.. the plate number doesn't necessarily start with the county number. If you check your link and look at the photos, the plate for Cedar Rapids PD starts with a 500xxx. Cedar Rapids is in Linn county which is county 57.

Also, some departments have customized plates, not all are the standard blue style. University Heights is one that I can think of that has their own plate style.

I wouldn't trust that site real well.................The official Sheriff plates shown on that site are not correct.

The ones in the thread on the white Impala are the new style

[newsphotog]

The new police plates all start with "50" -- for "five-oh."

Hawaii Five 0 Intro - YouTube

From what I can tell, the sequential numbers are not exclusive either. The ones I have seen have all been double-digit numbers, eg 500023. So Ankeny may have 500023 and Webster City might too.

[newsphotog]

Originally Posted by N7DJR

Speaking of DOT Vehicle Enforcement check this one out!

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=70EB5...9395&sc=photos

Oh yeah! I think one might have whizzed by me the other day, and I couldn't tell what was on the side. Last I heard, DPS was bringing MVE into the ISP, but I didn't hear anything about the transition being complete. That looks funny to me.

[newsphotog]

Originally Posted by newsphotog

From what I can tell, the sequential numbers are not exclusive either. The ones I have seen have all been double-digit numbers, eg 500023. So Ankeny may have 500023 and Webster City might too.

I take it back.