Police Spotting

[RMS]

Hey guys,

Has anyone noticed that their local police cars have number plates with the same first 2 letters.

It was brought to my attention that here in Bham, all cop cars have plates that start with 'BX', marked or unmarked. Since I have been observing, it does appear true. Obviously you can spot a marked car but hopefully spotting an unmarked car will be easier for those who like to deviate north of the speed limit (or criminals i suppose). Saves looking for extra aerials and lights.

I have seen big police vans with normal plates but i think those that give chase have the same.

Hope this hint helps

 

[ACID]

Yes you are right, BX/BU registrations are usually applied to all specialist vehicles as well as ambulances

 

[konrad1511]

is that only for Birmingham Police cars the BX BU registrations

 

[grumpyoldgit]

It may not be the case with the BU prefix. I used to work for a haulage company and some of their HGV's / LGV's had BU reg plates. It could be that they reserve the BX for specialist vehicles.

The first letter - B denotes registered in Birmingham. See following link.
Vehicle registration plates of the United Kingdom, Crown dependencies and overseas territories - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Deleted member 55947]

The original plate on mine began BU, although BU51 I can see the link lol

 

[grumpyoldgit]

Just did a quick search on the DVLA registration plates for sale and there are hundreds, if not thousands of BX plates available. So we can forget about that theory then :fail

 

[ACID]

yes in birmingham, not a theory as most specialist cars in bham do have BX, it does not stop other cars having them registrations too

 

[JimboDS]

I believe the first 2 characters on a registration plate indicate the DVLA branch that issued them. I suspect BX plates are just ones issues by the Birmingham DVLA branch rather than anything specific to police etc.

EDIT: See http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consu...n/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_067666.pdf which confirms this.

 

[RMS]

since ive started looking, ive noticed 1 bus with BX, all police cars with BX and no other regular cars with BX

i dont think its a hard and fast rule but something worth noting locally

 

[Dryce]

since ive started looking, ive noticed 1 bus with BX, all police cars with BX and no other regular cars with BX

i dont think its a hard and fast rule but something worth noting locally

It's just down to where the vehicles were first registered.

You tend to notice this sort of thing where vehicles are registered in batches for fleets - eg. vans, hire cars, company cars. There are a lot of MBs with KN and KT registrations because they were supplied to business and hire car fleets - and then after a year ors so passed to the dealers to be sold as approved used.

New Reg Personalised Number Plates - buy private, cherished and DVLA number plates

 

[RMS]

a more 'street version' of this post

UnderCover Police Cars | keyseventeen.com

 

[Vilus]

A lot of the unmarked Police cars in Kent have, or used to have, the GK prefix, Garden of Kent, having been registered in Maidstone.

 

[christopherwk]

Plenty of marked Met cars in London with the BX/BU registrations, also on motorcycles. Some Met vehicles also have LX regs as well.

Special Escort Group motorcycles, have/had "SEG" on their plates, both in the old and new style.

 

[m1br]

It's just down to where the vehicles were first registered.

Indeed.
You'll find a lot of BMWs with YC and Hondas with RO for example, they were all owned by those companies at registration (staff/pool/demonstrators)
Look them up and IIRC RO is Slough - HQ for Honda.

 

[bensonhedges]

Honda's in Swindon isn't it?

 

[redbaron]

Yes Honda is in Swindon.

BMW's uk distribution point is just off the M18/m180 junction hence the south yorkshire plates.

There is no system to identify police cars by reg number - private cars registered on AFRL at the same time by the same office will be mixed in. What makes it appear otherwise is large batches of cars can be registered together - so 150 police cars may be followed by 200 for Avis... thus they scatter far and wide making it appear that all BX***** cars are infact police cars in the local area when the reality is there are 200+ sat in airport long stays or company car parks...

 

[MOCAŠ]

Honda's in Swindon isn't it?

The plant is in Swindon but their head office is in Slough (used to be Chiswick).

 

[NISFAN]

Think the DVLA might block book some reg numbers to a certain organisation. For example all the Land Rover mules are almost always VX numbers, yet the JLR management cars are mostly OV, and the they span years, so VX09, VX59, etc.

 

[m1br]

The plant is in Swindon but their head office is in Slough (used to be Chiswick).

Honda (UK)
470 London Road
Slough
Berkshire
SL3 8QY

You can clearly see it driving Westbound near the M25>M4 jct (or M4/A4 to be precise)

 

[MOCAŠ]

Honda (UK)
470 London Road
Slough
Berkshire
SL3 8QY

You can clearly see it driving Westbound near the M25>M4 jct (or M4/A4 to be precise)

Helped by the fact that HONDA is spelt out in the flowerbed on the roundabout opposite their building.