A funny thing happened to me on the way to work this morning.
 

Or, is it legal to have a PA in your car?

Getting on the 105 Freeway in El Seguendo this morning and I hear what I think is a cop giving traffic directions over a PA. I look around, no cop. Traffic starts to merge again, here comes that voice again. Car in front of me, Honda Accord stops merging at the PA command, and pulls back onto Imperial into traffic. On coming car has to nail the brakes. I look behind me and there is a dark gray Nissan SUV. Guy driving is talking into something and I hear him over the PA. "You can't merge like that, go around." The guy didn't want people to merge in front of him and was using a PA to yell at them.

Obviously, my first instinct was that there was a cop and I looked around for him. When I realized it was some guy in an SUV, I used my camera phone to take a picture of him. Once on the highway, he took off. I sped up, followed and took a picture of his license plate too.

I was kinda pissed at the time, and if the guy had caused an accident I would have certainly stayed to comment to the police about it.

My question is: Is this legal? Can a regular citizen have a PA system in their car and use it to issue traffic commands like a cop does? Should I pursue this and file a police report? Should I do anything at all?

TIA

If there had been an accident, I would hope that you would provide info, etc. to officers. No accident, don't worry about it, but keep it in the back of your mind...

I don't know the legalities, but if he was calling people out on unsafe or stupid driving moves, maybe it's not such a bad thing!

What does it say about this country if we are more apt to follow unidentified, disembodied voices than common sense?

While it's not exactly the same thing, we had a bullhorn in our car once back in high school and were yelling at people out the window on our way home from work. A cop on the street heard us and came up to me at a stoplight and started yelling at me and threatened to arrest me. My guess is that it is a gray area, but that it is definitely frowned upon.

I had a friend in college with a car alarm and CB in his car that had rigged it into a PA. We mostly drove around campus and he pretended he was giving us a tour.

"And to your left, you will see Schroeder Hall, built in 1932 and named after..."

"And to your right, you will see some hotties. Waive at the hotties, they like the attention..."

Did they happen to say "Hey good looking, be back to pick you up later!"?

My friend with the PA did... (And then he'd say: "But wait, there's more...")

***

The more I think about this, the more I think the crime is illegally directing traffic or distracting other drivers, not having a PA installed.

I would imagine it's not illegal...you can even mount the flashing lights if you wish but the use of them may then be the question.

For instance you can have a historic police car in full dress and not be illegal.

There are plenty of times I wish I had one. I'd call the CHP and give them his license number.

Everyone should be driving with a cell phone in ear or at least with the music cranked - this never would have happened.

I used to have a CB/PA system in a 1971 Grand Prix ... I used it to remind others of their vehicular obligations and scold the stupid, but never direct traffic.

I did drive around a friend's neighborhood at 2:30 am singing the "ma-nah-ma-nah" song for 30 minutes, stopping every lap in front of his house for a full chorus.

Didn't do it in front of a cop, so I don't know whether it was illegal or not.

JP

I don't doubt what most have said here, but I just wonder if I could really get away with driving a Crown Victoria painted like a State Patrol car, complete with light bar on top. Even if I don't turn the lights on, I would look VERY MUCH like a State Patrol car. It would be an impersonation, of sorts. Which is......unlawful.

I'm only fifty years old but one of the things I've noticed in my short time here is that police officers HATE HATE HATE seeing anybody else's footprints in their sandbox. They have all the power and authority, and they're prepared to enforce that monopoly. My guess is that this fellow directing traffic with a bullhorn may very well get a shiny set of bracelets one day.

ha ha the sandbox line is funny, think it really depends on the size of the department. I have met a few of the local PD here and yes they are that way...while the officers from the smaller towns seem to be less rectum like.

Then again, K9 cops are different as we all seem to agree that the other one sucks as a dog handler. lol

Lights and stuff on regular cars, replica police cars, that's pretty interesting.

Quick search - there are cop car collectors, here's some of the basics of "cop car collecting:"

http://www.allpar.com/squads/collecting.html

An excerpt regarding flashing lights, etc.:

"We are constantly guarding against irresponsible behavior by other police car hobbyists. The impersonators have helped to make our lives a bit harder also. Some legislators do not see the difference between hobbyists and impersonators. Many of us are working very hard to try to change this and there has been some success and the work is ongoing. There also have been some failures such as in New Hampshire where the mounting of any lights on any vehicles now (as of 2007) requires a permit which is almost impossible for hobbyists to get. In Colorado, the ownership of red and blue lights by private individuals is illegal. We can only hope that this doesn’t continue to spread to other states, or worse…become Federal legislation. It is up to each and every one of us to see that this does not happen. Responsible ownership and operation of our vehicles is paramount."

What the fk..I want one to..to yell at all the yahoos to get the fk outa my way...ya dumb fk bozo...

Many of the "security" companies paint thier cars to appear to be local police.

"Get off the phone, idiot" would be the only thing I would use a PA in my car for.

I think the cops wouldn't mind...

-Z-man.

Ya like..."Hey ya Bimbo, with the big tits wana have a quicky by the side o the road?"

Actually sometimes they are motorcops in the making. I bought an old Kawi before going to motor school. I rode it for about 6 months to and from work and on the weekends. Put over 10K on it. After motor school I sold it to another cop who was going to do the same thing. It was kind of funny, I would see people slowly close the distance on me. Then when they would realize I wasn't a cop, they would completely maddog me. The disgust on thier face was actually really funny.

Oh btw, I had a black helmet ;)