do police cars have night vision?

reason i ask i just saw 3 police cars go at a high rate a speed in picth dark i knew it was police cars cause i have great night vision with my eyes lately and saw the weird pusher bumpers they have it was kinda cool i was on back porch watching the stars and i here cars but didnt see headlights like usal

Huh. I wonder if they have the heads-up night vision system that's used in some high-end cars. :huh:

maybe thats what it was .sure seems rather unsafe for the other drivers i got scaner on to see if anythings wrong but my dumb scaner quit scaning lol .what i mean if ya let it scan it never ever stops when a person is pseaking so i never here em talk .i tryied sqeach . i have to just listen to one chanel.

i work in chicago and night vision cameras are supposedly coming. we are years behind everyone else as far as advanced technology, but i believe that they are to be more of a surveillance tool. i havent heard of any department using night vision to navigate a vehicle. seems like a huge liability.

I agree, it does sound really unsafe. Even if the LEOs can see, the other drivers can't see them coming. I wonder if they were conducting some kind of night ops practice run.

I used to work in Monrovia, Calif., (near Pasadena) and the city had their own police department. The cars were regular cruisers, but the SUVs had FLIRs on the roof! Mind you, Monrovia's population is like 75,000: A small city.

I worked in a shop that dealt in high-performance car parts for imports... never once had a problem with crime in the six years we were there.

Sometimes a police car will "blackout" for whatever reason. In addition to the normal headlight switch, there is usually a brake/backup light kill switch on the lightbar control panel. This way you can still operate the car without activating any lights.

In Campbell, neighboring city to San Jose, some of the police cruisers have thermal vision equipment devices.

Depends on the agency.

For instance, my agency does not even though we are the largest in our county (because we are county) but one of the smallest agencies was able to get a grant for several FLIR systems.

But, we have AR15s in each car and they don't. :rock:

It all depends on what the admin want to spend money on...

Patrick

1995 Chevy Caprice 9C1's had Special Equipment Option codes UV1 and UV3
available from the factory
UV1 was the wiring provision for Hughes Data Vision heads up display for cetain MDT's (mobile data terminals)
UV3 added wiring for at Texas Instruments/Hughes NIGHTSIGHT low light video system which fed to the HUD as well

UV3 was rumered to nearly double the price of the car...VERY few cars were optioned with this SEO !

I had heard rumors a while ago of a civilian test of the ANVIS (aviation night vision imaging system). Since this system was designed to give stereoscopic vision (and thus provide depth perception) it makes sense that it could be used to drive a vehicle.

Seemed like it would be awfully expensive though and I never heard anything else about it.

(by the way, I worked a little on the ANVIS project, it was really COOL!)

In addition to the FLIR type systems that are available, there was at least one company that was using CCD plus IR illuminators that did not give off a dull red glow to the naked eye, and these were marketed to LEOs for the squad cars. Sorta like Sony NightShot cameras.

Interesting to read about the ANVIS type equipment. Other than officers using their own peronal ones, I'd never heard of that (not that I'm saying I would have). Even with a gated and\or filmless tube, lights in the field of view would greatly reduce visual accuity, so rural would be better for that technology. The military was going to use hybrid systems that combined IR with image intensification. That would be great for urban situations for LEOs.

I'm wondering...wouldn't oncoming traffic blind the officer driving a vehicle using a night vision HUD? (assuming oncoming traffic had headlights and what not on)

I would assume, though, that maybe such a device would be used in a low traffic area, but still...........

I'm impressed yet again. Several of you know more about ANVIS than I would ever have thought!

The main problem with FLIR is it doesn't recognize terrain so things like potholes don't show up. ANVIS II was (is?) supposed to have a "high light level" override that turns off all the image enhancement and makes it like two hollow tubes on your face. I was out of the project before they got to that though so I have no idea where it's at development wise.

CHC said:

In Campbell, neighboring city to San Jose, some of the police cruisers have thermal vision equipment devices.

Click to expand...

I vote for thermal imaging/vision cameras for use in the HOV lanes to catch cheaters.

I personnaly know a couple of people who have been hit by cops flying down the road at night in the dark with no lights on....they (cops) should be thrown in jail.

Yes, many night vision (image intensification, like ANVIS) systems have high light cutoff of some type. There's an external sensor on some systems which will turn them off after a few seconds.

In addition the tubes have Bright Source Protection, but this lowers resolution, which is the main advantage of image intensification over thermal. Thermal systems just don't have the resolution, but they find heat sources better. With thermal, if a perp steals a car and then drives into a parking lot, the officers can see which cars have been running from the engines, tires, etc.

Most image intensification have Automatic Brightness Control, but this just turns the gain up and down to some degree. On my third gen. night vision scope, which uses camera lenses, the f-stop can be opened or closed. Image gets darker though when doing this, losing detail. Also, halo effect of light sources obscures vision as well. Even dim light bulbs will produce this effect.

I doubt the LEOs will use night vision for driving any real distances, and then it'd probably be rural activity, like going for a meth lab. Suddenly having two hollow tubes on your face while driving in the dark is a scary thought. Yeah, you can flip them up, but then your eyes (both of them!) are adapted to the brighter image you were getting!

s.duff said:

i work in chicago and night vision cameras are supposedly coming. we are years behind everyone else as far as advanced technology, but i believe that they are to be more of a surveillance tool. i havent heard of any department using night vision to navigate a vehicle. seems like a huge liability.

Click to expand...

Here's something they supposedly have. Have you seen it?
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/96924