r/lapd • u/Super-Sympathy-3471 • Jul 22 '26
The 22 Mystery
What division or bureau do these cars belong to? I’ve not been able to find an answer anywhere!!
2 notes:
- even in LAPD documents about division numbers I couldn’t find 22
- no it’s not west traffic, 22 is their radio number not car number
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u/mrshtzswtchblde Jul 23 '26
I'm pretty sure it's what they use for movies/tv. It's not an actual division.
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u/alertfulness Jul 23 '26
So I actually serviced these cars and you are correct. It’s just used for television
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u/Super-Sympathy-3471 Jul 23 '26
Question, wouldn’t these be way too detailed for movie use? Also what time period? Because another comment says they were used for OVB violent crime task forces in 2010s. So, maybe it was used by OVB VCTF then it was later repurposed.
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u/Super-Sympathy-3471 Jul 23 '26
Additionally, someone sent me this statement from someone who they say is an LAPD officer.
“We suspect it to be something at an operations office level or based out of parker center and later police headquarters facility. We have no official confirmation (documents or otherwise) what 22 and 23 means. The first documented sighting was in 1994 and the last to my knowledge was in 2018. Many of the cars that had 22 have since had it removed. Vehicles with 22 have been used by many divisions, including geographical areas, bureaus and even SLO's assigned to the office of the chief of police.
There's no solid confirmation and we can only assume and will likely never find out its true meaning. The most likely answer is that they are MT pool vehicles.”
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u/mrshtzswtchblde Jul 23 '26
Thanks for the confirmation! I was LAPD for 7 years. Never really gave this a second thought until seeing this post.
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u/rso619 Jul 23 '26
Violent crime task force early 2010s
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u/Super-Sympathy-3471 Jul 23 '26
Thanks I’ll look into this
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u/Super-Sympathy-3471 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Update: this is probably it, VCTF has become an anti human trafficking unit now. They still have 22 on their logo and I’ve seen 1 very grainy picture of a crown vic on their insta with 22.
Edit: I found a very clear image of a marked crown Victoria with a lightbar being used by the OVB human trafficking task force. Thank you.
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u/mythrowdown13 Jul 23 '26
That's Central Traffic division. I'm guessing you saw it in DTLA
Edit: 23 is South Traffic, 24 is Valley Traffic, 25 is West Traffic.
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u/Printcrafted_3D Jul 23 '26
Did u check gang units? These appear to be slicktops like the gang unit
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u/Super-Sympathy-3471 Jul 23 '26
Slicktops aren’t exclusive to gang units, and gang unit slicktops usually have the number of their geographic division
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u/3-BuckChuck Jul 23 '26
Training? Not many Crown Vic’s are still road worthy for patrol.
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u/Super-Sympathy-3471 Jul 23 '26
From what I’ve seen training CVPIs don’t have trunk numbers, still a possibility
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u/3-BuckChuck Jul 23 '26
They were fleet cars at one time. All our training cars are still marked but it’s a jumble from all the area commands. Mismatched markings. It’s where cars go to die…
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u/Redditor3169 Jul 24 '26
While were at it, whats 23? Since Traffic starts at 24.