I was in SF when a police undercover van raided a building. I wanted to see if I examined the van closely, there would be something salient about it that would make it easy to spot a police van in the future.
Even though the van was rather beat up. It had almost brand new tires with excellent treads on it.
my takeaway was, the cars have to be maintained really well and have reliable engines and tires, even thought they are dressed to not stand out.
BTW, the police didn't like me so intently looking at their car and they IDed me and played their intimidations game a bit.
> my takeaway was, the cars have to be maintained really well and have reliable engines and tires,
Not true. A department I interned with would use civil asset forfeit vehicles as-is for undercover jobs.
New tires and engines aren't important; they aren't using these for pursuits, and authenticity is the #1 most important form of camoflauge in these situations-- your agent's life is often at risk. Having such obvious tells (like whitewall tires, no hubcaps on govt vehicles, etc) is a good way to get them killed and your investigation compromised.
It isn't limited to whitewalls specifically-- tire styles are passing fads like any other. When specific tires start falling out of favor with consumers, any vehicle still rocking (new) ones of the deprecated type was presumed to be part of a fleet or motor pool. Fleet procurement tends not to concern itself with staying trendy.
Police spycraft has advanced since the 60s though so to avoid these issues they borrow from the pre-auction pool.
Even though the van was rather beat up. It had almost brand new tires with excellent treads on it.
my takeaway was, the cars have to be maintained really well and have reliable engines and tires, even thought they are dressed to not stand out.
BTW, the police didn't like me so intently looking at their car and they IDed me and played their intimidations game a bit.