Audio By Carbonatix
This isn’t a prank, but it sure looks like one. Keisha Huff is a mom and daughter of a now-retired police officer. She was recently driving with her family in Campbell County, Kentucky, and passed a department-issued SUV parked off the side of the road.
At first glance, it looked like a patrol officer was inside, monitoring the scene. A closer inspection, though, revealed the truth.
Some police departments park an empty cruiser in a visible spot and stick a mannequin in the driver’s seat
Yes, this is a real thing. It’s a low-cost way to slow people down.
When drivers spot the cruiser, they instinctively tap the brakes. The “officer” inside never moves, but from a distance, the illusion works.
Departments use this tactic in areas with repeated speeding complaints or where they lack enough officers to keep a constant presence
A parked cruiser with a dummy can remind drivers that enforcement is possible at any time. It costs far less than staffing a patrol shift and can be moved around to keep people guessing.
Usually, no one is actively monitoring drivers from those dummy-filled cruisers. They’re more of a scarecrow for speeders than a surveillance tool.
That said, some departments will pair the tactic with hidden officers nearby
In those cases, the parked cruiser with the mannequin is the decoy, and the real police officer down the road clocks speeds or watches for violations. You really can’t tell from a distance which setup you’re passing, which is part of the point.
Most of the time, though, it is just a low-cost reminder to behave behind the wheel, not an undercover stakeout.
It’s not perfect, obviously
Some drivers figure it out after passing once or twice.
But for others, that quick glimpse of a white shirt and dark sunglasses is enough to change their behavior, at least for the next few miles.
Police see it as another tool in the toolbox: less high-tech than radar cameras, but often just as effective at making people ease off the gas.
Other TikTokers came in fast, and more than a few tipped their hats to the beloved 2002 comedy film “Super Troopers.”
At least three said something along the lines of, “The cop is fishing, haven’t you seen ‘Super Troopers’?”
Another remarked, “Cops out fishing iykyk”.
Someone else went with, “What in the super troopers”.
Other replies leaned into pure visual comedy.
One joked, “dude, to me he looks like bella’s dad from twilight, not fully tho I think it’s the mustache”.
Another deadpanned, “In this case you can actually say This Cop is a dummy”.
Someone suggested a prank: “Please buy a For Sale sign and put it on there with the local police dept number on it… Maybe a $24,000 asking price!”.
A few locals added inside knowledge. One warned, “some days it’ll be a real cop sitting there”.
Another said, “Back towards my home town, they took off the retire cruisers and sat it in the median and moved it around every couple of days … it worked for about 2 weeks”.
And of course, there was that perfect small-town zinger: “We had one in my county and his name was ‘manny Quinn’ he had his own Instagram account lol”.
MotorBiscuit reached out to Keisha via direct message on her TikTok account, keishahuff23, to see if she’s spotted the same SUV anywhere else around town, and wondering what her dad (a retired police officer) thinks of this tactic.
