NYPD Yellow: New York City's Undercover Taxis

Hey its Zach from the 718motorpool and I'm sorry if my voice sounds a little off but I'm still sick. In fact I feel worse when I recorded my last video and the only way I will feel any better is if you like, subscribe and hit that bell, And also join me on discord. But back on topic, today were going to be talking about one of the most unique undercover police vehicles, The yellow taxis used by the NYPD. Yellow cabs have been ubiquitous in New york city since 1967 when the NYPD hack bureau the precursor to the taxi and limousine commission which regulated taxis and taxi drivers mandated that medallion cabs be painted yellow to differentiate them from illegal gypsy cabs. Of the 13,000 yellow cabs in New York city not all of them were in the business of picking up fares. Starting in the 60s the NYPD started using cabs in an unofficial capacity often borrowing them from local cab companies or even converting impounded cabs for department use. The idea of using taxis isn't exclusive to the NYPD. In fact Ive personally been in a Checker that was used by the FBI for surveillance however using them on patrol was unique to NYC however Through the 60s and 70s the use of Taxis was sporadic and unofficial. On of the first documented use of unmarked cabs was in the line of duty deaths of detectives Luke Fallon and John Finnegan who were responding in an unmarked taxi to an armed robbery of a tobacco shop in boro park Brooklyn On may 18th 1962. In the early 1980s the NYPD Started outright purchasing taxis and requested a block of medallion numbers for a small amount of dodge st regises. As the department started purchasing cabs they would be assigned to the citywide street crime unit and precinct based anti crime units. Street crime and anticrime were plain clothes units that existed to stop crimes in progress as well as go after illegal guns in the city. Using one officer as the driver and the other officer sitting in the back as a fare they were able to sneak up on perps who wouldn't give the car a second look until they were face down on the hood getting searched. However as more and more cabs got put on the street something became pretty obvious. The certain blocks of medallion numbers would be exclusive to the NYPD with 6Y 3R and 2W being common numbers for undercover cabs but others would appear over the years. To a street wise criminal these numbers would stick out. Lighting on yellow cabs was minimal to non existent, often times only having a teardrop light at best and nothing at worst Sirens were also not installed on every undercover cab. However Most unmarked cabs did have functioning taxi meters Due to the overwhelming success of the undercover cabs being used by crime teams the NYPD highway patrol would start getting unmarked cabs starting in the late 90s. So I grew up on Staten Island and there was exactly one Yellow Taxi on Staten island and it was common knowledge that it was the NYPD because yellow cabs rarely came to Staten Island. This also held true to high crime areas of the city that were mostly serviced by gypsy cabs and livery services. That being said the cabs were more effective in certain areas of the city than others. Moving onto the later era of cabs starting with the crown vics they came in two flavors. Police package or taxi package which after 2002 would include long wheelbase cars.. Cars assigned to precincts tended on having minimal lights and some even had the compact Federal signal 650 siren or a PA300 in the glove compartment over the larger Smart siren to be more discrete. While Cars assigned to highway typically had more lights since they were doing traffic enforcement in high speed environments. Some of these highway cars would end up being reassigned to precincts over time. As ride share companies became more prevalent the yellow cab slowly began to fall out of favor, After the crown vics there were small purchases of Nissan Altimas and a handful of ford Taurses but nowhere near as much as it used to be. But people still talk about getting pulled over by taxis and older new yorkers ask themselves, Is that a cop or is that a cab? #nyc #nypd #police #history #1970s #70s #80s #1980s #90s #1990s #cars #policecars #policecar #copcar #copcars #crownvic #automobile #cars #car #plymouth #80s #1980s #documentary #chicago #firefighter #firefighters #firetruck #fireengines #fireman Follow me on my other platforms! Instagram   / 718motorpool   Tiktok   / 718motorpool   Discord   / discord   Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use