“Police, follow this van” stickers.

[Samro]

I have a question which is altogether more important than leaking windows or speed limits!
What is the meaning of the large informative stickers on the back of many vans stating “Police follow this van”?
What does this mean?
Police are following the vehicle?... if so for what purpose?
Police should follow this van because it is fill of something sketchy?
I have no clue what the intended benefit of this sticker is? Please can someone help as i have several work vehicles and I wonder if I am missing out on something?

 

[Steve Hales]

I have a question which is altogether more important than leaking windows or speed limits!
What is the meaning of the large informative stickers on the back of many vans stating “Police follow this van”?
What does this mean?
Police are following the vehicle?... if so for what purpose?
Police should follow this van because it is fill of something sketchy?
I have no clue what the intended benefit of this sticker is? Please can someone help as i have several work vehicles and I wonder if I am missing out on something?

Usually on cash in transit vans trying to deter the robbing gits.

 

[Samro]

Usually on cash in transit vans trying to deter the robbing gits.

So it is supposed to be a statement indicating that police are spending their time following a specific van?

If that be true then surely this would be identified as the most obvious nonsensical lie ever?

Stating that the police follow a specific van is clearly bobbins? Who would believe that to be true? More would be gained with a sticker saying “Lions on board” or “Driver is armed”!

We live in a world where police won’t attend a house following a robbery and yet people are buying these stickers in an attempt to “fox” hardened criminals?

 

[Fluff34567]

Its a myth like TV detector van

 

[Eli]

Myth busters ha ha

 

[Loz]

I think it’s similar to the the stickers that used to be popular saying 50+
what they mean is, if you(police) see this being driven at night(your example) or if the drivers looks less than 50, stop the vehicle and suspect it’s stolen.

 

[boxelder]

I always assumed they had trackers, though whether the boys n girls in blue pay any attention before a crime is committed, I doubt it.

 

[DaveD]

So it is supposed to be a statement indicating that police are spending their time following a specific van?

If that be true then surely this would be identified as the most obvious nonsensical lie ever?

Stating that the police follow a specific van is clearly bobbins? Who would believe that to be true? More would be gained with a sticker saying “Lions on board” or “Driver is armed”!

We live in a world where police won’t attend a house following a robbery and yet people are buying these stickers in an attempt to “fox” hardened criminals?

My experience is not recent so I can only say what happened years ago........
I spent 20 years on Armed Response Vehicles, mostly marked cars, sometimes plain cars. When we saw cash in transit vans we'd always have an eye on what vehicles were around, looking to see if they were being followed or if any suspicious vehicles were parked where they were doing collections or deliveries. if we were not busy we'd follow them for a while, usually at a distance.
Occasionally we would have the benefit of specific intelligence about a planned robbery and we'd have a team follow the van covertly waiting for the robbers to arrive, sometimes they did and things got exciting, more often they didn't.
Back to the original question, what is the point of those stickers? I've no idea!

 

[Sackmycook]

My experience is not recent so I can only say what happened years ago........
I spent 20 years on Armed Response Vehicles, mostly marked cars, sometimes plain cars. When we saw cash in transit vans we'd always have an eye on what vehicles were around, looking to see if they were being followed or if any suspicious vehicles were parked where they were doing collections or deliveries. if we were not busy we'd follow them for a while, usually at a distance.
Occasionally we would have the benefit of specific intelligence about a planned robbery and we'd have a team follow the van covertly waiting for the robbers to arrive, sometimes they did and things got exciting, more often they didn't.
Back to the original question, what is the point of those stickers? I've no idea!

Yep, that's my experience too.....except with a furry landshark

 

[DaveD]

Yep, that's my experience too.....except with a furry landshark

On some jobs I was on the furry landshark ended up being the most important team member!

 

[Dellmassive]

REDIT:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1e2fpy

.

 

[Phil_G]

Its a myth like TV detector van

A long time ago as part of my training I worked on a Post Office Telephones TV detector van with the Radio Interference Investigation group based in Sheffield.
Whats the myth, I'm intrigued

“Lions on board”

 

[DaveD]

The strangest theft from a cash in transit van is this one:

Clapham G4S driver who stole nearly £900,000 jailed

Joel March, 36, abandoned his van in south London and made off with 43 containers of cash.

www.bbc.co.uk

The driver (alone with £900K!) decides he's had enough and steals £900K in cash so he can buy some new trainers and a few other bits, gets arrested the next day, £840K is never recovered. He gets four years jail, which really means less than 2 years, then he's either a rich man on the streets or he's got to try and find the person he trusted to look after the money for him!

 

[T6ARF]

On some jobs I was on the furry landshark ended up being the most important team member!

Excuse my ignorance gentlemen, but what’s a ‘Furry Landshark’?

 

[$immo]

With regards to London Police, the "Follow this Van" is part of Operation Vanguard a joint initiative between cash in transit (CIT) companies and Scotland Yards Flying Sq. Marked & unmarked Police are encouraged to follow or sit off and observe CIT's if they are making deliveries or being driven in unlikely locations or times.
Op Vanguard also deals with the linking of Intel around dye boxes (now defunked with plastic notes) Glue bombs and DNA micro dots. It's all part of crime prevention methods between CIT companies and Law Enforcement.

Not sure if the stickers work that much though?

 

[Ali-G]

The strangest theft from a cash in transit van is this one:

Clapham G4S driver who stole nearly £900,000 jailed

Joel March, 36, abandoned his van in south London and made off with 43 containers of cash.

www.bbc.co.uk

The driver (alone with £900K!) decides he's had enough and steals £900K in cash so he can buy some new trainers and a few other bits, gets arrested the next day, £840K is never recovered. He gets four years jail, which really means less than 2 years, then he's either a rich man on the streets or he's got to try and find the person he trusted to look after the money for him!

 

[Dellmassive]

A long time ago as part of my training I worked on a Post Office Telephones TV detector van with the Radio Interference Investigation group based in Sheffield.
Whats the myth, I'm intrigued

may i ask . . . .

what was the "Detector" and how did it work.?

i always thought it was a Myth, and that they never existed. ,. . . .

but . . . .


during my college time "Electronic engineering & communication" when doing RF, i worked out that you could use a Yagi directional antenna to pick up the high freq RF energy from the high voltage tube TV`s back then.. so possibly use that method of an indication that there was a high voltage device creating some RFI/EMI, maybe a TV.


so i though the idea was possible . . . . but didn't think it was implemented.

...

 

[Samro]

may i ask . . . .

what was the "Detector" and how did it work.?

i always thought it was a Myth, and that they never existed. ,. . . .

but . . . .


during my college time "Electronic engineering & communication" when doing RF, i worked out that you could use a Yagi directional antenna to pick up the high freq RF energy from the high voltage tube TV`s back then.. so possibly use that method of an indication that there was a high voltage device creating some RFI/EMI, maybe a TV.


so i though the idea was possible . . . . but didn't think it was implemented.

...

I can’t believe that a student would spend that much time playing with their Yagi in preference to wasting their student loan in the student union bar!
It’s people like @Dellmassive that give students a reputation!

 

[Sackmycook]

Excuse my ignorance gentlemen, but what’s a ‘Furry Landshark’?

Apparantly burglars taste like chicken to them

 

[Loz]

The TV detector receiver looks for the “ring” from the oscillator when it’s energised.

I one of my previous ‘jobs’ we had a receiver in a van that could sit outside of an office and display what was being displayed on the monitor.