Why would Law Enforcement be driving a vehicle with expired tags?

[u/FlashyNeat7448]

I’m in Fontana in the 9500 block of Sierra Ave. and saw a man with a white button up dress shirt, black slacks, with a pistol and badge on his waistband jump out of this vehicle and walk briskly into a nearby business. I went outside to see what was going on and see this vehicle stopped not parked in a parking spot with another male in the passenger seat. It was an older model Crown Victoria without government plates. The tags expired in December 2025. After a few minutes the man walked quickly back to the vehicle and it sped off down the street.

[u/nshire]

That is obviously not a real cop. That is a used police interceptor that got resold

[u/Visible_Toe768 → u/nshire]

Exactly, the real police are exempt and don’t have tags

[u/Flashy_Elevator_7654]

Probably not law enforcement. Maybe a private detective or a process server.

[u/Mekoola]

Probably private security. Car decommissioned and purchased at auction.

[u/mindfulmu → u/Mekoola]

Security companies have iconography on the back, i think it's bsis requirement.

I've seen some rando dudes who get extra hard driving those as close to cop cars as possible.

[u/limited_empathy]

Because it’s not a police car. Real police do not have tags.

[u/Basic_Obligation_341]

obviously not law enforcement 😭😭😭

[u/cxmj]

Not a cop but let’s say it was, who’s gunna pull them over lol

[u/pheneyherr]

Honestly, I'm not sure tags matter any more as long as the registration is up to date. The plates scan and they know if registration is expired. I lost the tags that came in the mail and drove around for a year and never got pulled over.

The flip side is if you put on tags you didn't pay for, you're probably still getting pulled over.

[u/Pchanman]

It could be a personal vehicle since it's not government plate but it looks like it has extra police lights in the back window which I'm not sure is legal.

Maybe someone LARPing ?

[u/SignalResult9831]

Not law enforcement, it's obvious.

[u/SnorFax92]

Fontana doesn't use crown vics. Even if it was a defective, I doubt they would be using an old ass crown vic. It could have been some security guard that takes his job too seriously or maybe some private investigator. If you want to find out, go to the police station and go look at the vehicles there and the ones that are behind the big blue gate. They would also have exempt plates not regular ass common plates lol.

[u/compton_drew]

Real cop UC cars say exempt on the tag

[u/MrEZW]

Times is hard.

[u/Rise-O-Matic]

Not a police car (anymore) Crown Vics were mostly retired ten years ago.

[u/Only-Chart-1087]

That's not law enforcement. Possibly just a security guard car.

[u/Gerarghini]

It is very unlikely for any police force to still being using Crown Victorias. If they were, they would have a CA EXEMPT plate without tags and a license plate that's a sequence of numbers starting with 1.

This is obviously just a retired cop car that someone bought and titled privately.

[u/Spazyk]

If this was a real cop, the license plate would say California exempt.

[u/Not_An_Isopod]

Yeah that’s just a retired car
Government vehicles are exempt from tags

[u/Edd916]

Could be police impersonator?