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Meet the new, disguised California Highway Patrol

July 1, 2025

Daniel Blackburn

OPINION by DANIEL BLACKBURN

I was wheeling down I-5 the other day when I saw two vehicles on the shoulder. The one in back was a small, greyish SUV; in its rear window red lights were flashing, and on its front doors were the insignias and identification of the California Highway Patrol. It was a quick view, for sure, but I knew right away what it was.

Having heard that the patrol was planning to introduce “low-profile” vehicles to its familiar black-and-white fleet, I correctly deduced this was one of the new vehicles. The stated purpose is to wander the highways of the state and surreptitiously pick off those drivers who seem intent on speed and recklessness.

Three cheers! In the last few years, I’ve noticed –and so have many others — that seemingly fewer CHP vehicles are around to catch these idiots. And traffic laws on California’s highways have certainly been progressively ignored.

Any routine journey on such a byway would bear witness to some witless driver endangering everyone around.

I guess in today’s environment these sub-rosa CHP vehicles are necessary. Who among us hasn’t wondered aloud while driving…”Never a cop around when these creeps drive like this.”

In the last decade, the CHP was largely controlled, though its funding, by a state Assembly member named Lou Papan. Papan was a great supporter of the CHP (emphasis on “great”) and his word was just plain law for that agency.

During his lengthy two-decade tenure, the Daly City Democrat flatly vetoed the use of unmarked or disguised CHP vehicles, firmly believing that high visibility of the black-and-white car was a deterrent to fast and reckless driving.

Before he retired, he gave the okay to the all-white CHP cars we occasionally see today, but only on the condition the vehicles be used exclusively for commercial truck driver compliance. That policy died eventually after Papan’s 2007 death.

Now the agency has introduced 100 little patrol vehicles that you will not see until one is on your rear bumper with red lights flashing. Crazy drivers, take notice.

I’m a bit saddened by this step, but it was necessary, I guess. It’s just another sign of a society that is undergoing transformational changes, for better or for worse.

Co-founder Daniel Blackburn can be criticized at blackburn.danielj@gmail.com.

 


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Will they be writing tickets to truckers who are driving their rigs at 70 to 80 mph on the highway? This has to be the most flouted violation on our highways and the most dangerous. Yet, this is the least enforced violation on the highways. The speed limit is 55 mph but almost no truckers obey it or are penalized for it.


15

I often drive almost 1000 miles a week and the fastest I’ve ever seen a tractor trailer is 70mph. And that’s unusual. Yes, most do 65 instead of 55. If you perceive that truckers around you are going 80, you must be the guy holding up traffic.


2

I would like to see unmarked vehicles with, a second officer, recording the car, plate and driver on the phone and send a ticket to the registered owner and have the RO go to court and prove it was not them on the phone like the red light cameras.


-15

Sorry, the off color cars are used for nothing but a money grab, when you see a black and white sitting on the on/off ramp traffic slows down, this is what you want, because toy have no idea if the airplane is being used so you pat attention, a charcoal or other color car does nothing to slow down traffic, if CHP doesn’t have a presence with a black and white what difference does it make if they have a non discript color car, none, they are used to collect money from the taxpayer


3

Knowledge is power. If you know the little rascals are out there, maybe you’ll slow down.


10

Nice piece, Dan! I remember back in 1987 when 55 was the limit and we were so happy with the increase to 65 so a mileage number meant the approximate time remaining in our excursion.


13

Should be like fishin’ in a barrel.


14

I hope the CHP will be using these new incognito cars on Highway 166. The speed limit on this dangerously curvy two-lane highway is 55 mpg. I usually go closer to 60 mph when I drive this highway frequently. However, I’m just about the only one going near the speed limit. I get passed (sometimes dangerously) by cars going at least 65 or 70. I’ve even been passed by a semi a few times. The CHP needs to monitor drivers on this highway more often since routinely there are accidents on this road with cars flipping over missing a sharp turn, causing deaths.


30

I couldn’t agree more. A few weeks ago I almost lost my life to a truck passing a group of cars in a no passing zone around a blind curve and on a bridge just west of the vineyard. We missed each other by inches.

youtu.be/mz_u_Y6rRBU


21

That was close!! I’ve seen enough dash cam videos to know I need a dash cam. What brand are you using?


1

Viofo A329 dashcam


1

I’m totally with you here , Dan. I have to drive 101 almost daily for work and its like Mad Max out there! A sad state of affairs, indeed. The frantic and maniacal driving is a testament to the mental state of many . While I’m not a fan of growing government here in cash- strapped California, more officers and ‘disguised’ units are a welcome addition for me.


22

Personally, I prefer a police state with members in unmarked vehicles, masked occupants, an no identifying insignia to assure me they are lawful agents of the state.

Makes me feel secure in my persons and papers.


You see a B&W your butt puckers a bit. That I do know.


-9

Remember when CHP used airplanes & marked police cars to catch speeders .


3

Nothing will beat the 1969 Dodge Polara sedan as the ultimate CHP vehicle.

Also, the Crown Vics were great CHP cruisers.


18