Quote:
Originally Posted by litsnsirn
Mike, that first Diplomat picture is a federal 55 mph car and not an SMPV, right?
Would the white one be a SMPV that was repurposed or a car from another agency that was dissolved into the CHP? It appears to have regular spotlights and a regular pushbumper.
When I went to the Ripon show a few years back somewhere between SJO and Ripon I remember having seeing an all white CVPI CHP car, are those still called SMPV's?
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While not part of the original SMPV program, I've heard of those Federal 55 cars being referred to as such just because they weren't traditionally marked vehicles. Yeah, the white Diplomat definitely looks to be a repurposed car, most likely it was from an SMPV.
I don't hear the term SMPV much anymore from the Chippies. There are still white commerical enforcement units and those typically have pushbars and CB antennas. The new category of white cars lack both of those, sport chrome 5" spots and are referred to as "PCF" units. That stands for
Primary
Collision
Factors, which are defined as speeding, tailgating and unsafe lane changing and according to the CHP are among the leading causes of accidents. These stealth units are supposed to concentrate on these types of enforcement , which I suppose is how they got authorized to use them. But the stealth helps for all types I guess, huh?
SMPV (commercial enforcement) unit, slightly wrecked:
PCF unit, about as stealthy as you can get with a Vic:
