Unmarked Police Cars

Sir,

Further to your unmarked police car correspondence, allow me to point out that the Suffolk police are now in the act. Around the Newmarket bypass – a tempting but not special safe dual-carriageway due to the lack of central barriers – I was this morning pounced upon by a Granada which, fortunately, I had seen coming and with the aid of Mark One Eyeball, was able to identify as a you-know-what. I stuck at exactly 60 m.p.h. [before the June 1st speed limit increase.—Ed.] with the smokey in plain wrapper, as the American CBers say, a couple of car lengths behind.

Just when I was wondering whether to take the next exit and use the old route through Newmarket, a small delivery van from one of those messenger companies that pose as private armies, eased past at perhaps 63-65 m.p.h. The smokey abandoned me, overtook the van and, wonder of the modern age, remotely raised a white blind in the hack window announcing who he was and what he wanted the other driver to do : stop.

In your rear vision mirror this unmarked car will appear as a white Granada with a rather large radio antenna, a pair of round fog lamps mounted above the bumper and close to the headlamps themselves, and quite large external mirrors on both doors. If you are coming up behind it, there is the normal Granada badge supplemented by an S (for sneaky?) and a vertical cord up the centre of the rear window which serves as a runner for the blind. The driver—he was alone— was wearing his cap.

Incidentally, I feel somewhat less alarmed by the physical presence of unmarked police cars than by the mentality that creates what are virtually secret police. Is it not six-and-a-half years to 1984?

Name and address supplied