“Ghost Cop Cars” Designed to Give You Tickets Spark Debate — “This Should be ILLEGAL”

Tickets/fines always seem to come at the worst possible time, like when you decided to pick up a hefty restaurant tab or you just had a series of birthday parties and events that you shelled out a decent chunk of change for, or when you finally paid off a bunch of bills that have been accumulating/stressing over whether or not you’d be able to pay them off in time.

And while it can be argued that there’s never really a “good” time to get a parking ticket or to get pulled over and hit with a sizable moving violation, the bigger argument is what the point of said fines in America for these violations are.

While a $250 speeding ticket is no big deal for someone who makes bank, for those who are barely getting by, that can be the difference between an oil change and having cell phone service for the month.

Finland has adopted a “scaled” approach to traffic violations that fines people based on what their income is, meaning that multi-millionaires can receive tickets worth $100,000 or more depending on how much they earn, while folks who earn less will pay an amount that is relative to whatever they’re bringing home.

But there’s been a lot of criticism of police officers in America and that their job is to effectively shake people down for cash.

And a viral TikTok that shows a “ghost” cop car only further adds to that belief. If you’re looking for someone to help protect and serve you, or to curb any crime, you’re going to want a highly visible police vehicle that stands out, correct?

Similarly, if you see one of these cars parked on the side of the road or driving on the highway, then you’re going to probably want to slow down if you’re driving 20 miles above the speed limit.

But “incognito” cop cars, like the one showed off by TikToker @bigrecktv appear to be designed with one purpose in mind: to catch people unawares.

In the clip, we see what appears to be a plain black Dodge Charger, however, highlighting the black text on the car reveals that it is indeed a police vehicle.

Many commenters remarked that “to protect and serve” doesn’t really seem applicable in this circumstance since the primary focus of a “ghost” car is to fly under the radar.

Others referred to police officers as “tax collectors” and that more and more departments appear to care more about extracting money from citizens than actually helping them in their time of need.

There were also TikTokers who wanted to know if it was even legal for officers to drive around in such disguised vehicles.

It does appear to be a common practice, as many users on the platform also mentioned that anytime they see Dodge Chargers or Ford Explorers, they immediately think it’s a police officer anyway and slow down while driving.

What do you think? Should “ghost” cop cars be allowed or does that defeat the purpose of a patrol vehicle?