Ever been out on the highway looking for that big load of dope when suddenly the perfect car drives by? You know the one: a car with out-of-state tags, a “D.A.R.E.” bumper sticker, and a Christmas tree air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. The driver isn’t wearing his seatbelt and he’s going 15 mph under the speed limit. Your blood starts boiling and your adrenaline begins pumping so hard that you lay rubber as you hit your overhead lights to go after it.
Well as perfect as it looks, you’ve probably just gotten behind a decoy vehicle.
Below are five suggestions for when you find yourself stopping a vehicle purposely meant to draw the attention of law enforcement — specifically interdiction cops — so a vehicle with the dope in it can creep on by you while you’re focused on the decoy.
1. Waiting is the Hardest Part
First and foremost, you must be patient. I have a spot — a favorite spot — on the side of the highway that is on level ground but a quarter of a mile past it, the road descends a hill. Once a car passes me and drops down that hill, they can no longer see my car. I always wait to go after a car until its occupants no longer see me and no longer think I’m coming after them. This allows the driver to relax and potentially commit a traffic violation... one that is perfect for probable cause.There is another benefit to this favorite spot: it lets me wait. Waiting — even after you see a potentially good vehicle — can allow you to look for other vehicles that look suspicious just seconds behind the first one. Once you’ve waited and have indeed spotted a few, there are a few indicators that may lead you to believe these two vehicles are traveling together in tandem. Do they have the same state of registry on the license plates? If they do, another indicator is to go even further and check the city they are registered out of: are they close together? Without waiting a beat, you would never be able to make that connection.
2. Look Behind, and Listen
If and when you stop one, always continue looking at the cars passing you, scanning for a potential second vehicle that could be traveling with the vehicle you’ve stopped.If there is a cell phone (or often, multiple cell phones) ringing in the suspect vehicle as soon as you walk up to the window, this could be an indicator that they are being followed by another car and they observed you pulling them over.
3. Too Good to be True
I get a heightened sense of awareness just seeing a rental car drive past, but I also know that a rental may turn out to be a decoy. If you’re an experienced interdiction officer, you know how lucrative rental cars have been for the cartels in hauling dope. Make no mistake, the cartels study what we do, and when we bust one of their loads, they analyze why it got caught and attempt to change their tactics.You know that a brand new, American-made car with out-of-state tags driven by someone with two hands on the steering wheel and looking straight ahead? Never underestimate your adversary’s ability to employ clever counter-interdiction tactics. Stay vigilant when you make that stop.
4. Beware the Willing Driver
You stop a really interesting vehicle. The indicators are there, both inside and outside the car. But as an experienced interdiction officer you don’t sense any sense of nervousness about the driver. In fact, he may be overly willing to let you search his vehicle, because that is his objective: the longer you spend wasting your time on his empty vehicle, the greater the chance that the dope load will drive by.In this case, it’s to your advantage to work as an interdiction team with at least two squads. One officer stops the decoy; the other goes after the potential dope car.
5. Use the Decoy for Intel
A good interview can often determine that the vehicle is indeed a decoy. But once you’ve come to that conclusion, there is much more you can still do, so press the interview. You can learn from a decoy, and sometimes gather enough intelligence to contact law enforcement on up the road so that they may be able to stop the load car, or wait at the end destination.
Lastly, you must remember to keep scanning the highway, before, during, and after a traffic stop. That one car you’ve been looking for might pass that looks just a little bit better than the one you have stopped. Issue the citation or warning for the violation you stopped them for, then put the hammer down and try to catch up to that golden gem that passed you, because Lord knows you want to get to it before somebody beats you to it!
Stay safe out there.
