New California Highway Patrol Cruisers Spearhead Crackdown on 'Video-Game Styled' Driving

What to know

The California Highway Patrol is deploying 100 specially marked patrol vehicles (SMPVs), including a Dodge Durango, to blend in with traffic and catch reckless drivers without being easily spotted.
So far, 25 SMPVs have been deployed, with the rest arriving next month to patrol high-risk highways across California.
With nearly 18,000 citations issued for speeding over 100 mph last year and over 390,000 annual crashes, these new vehicles aim to reduce dangerous "video-game styled" driving and improve road safety.

The California Highway Patrol’s Modesto office has received a specially marked 2024 Dodge Durango amid ongoing efforts to crack down on “video-game styled” driving on highways, according to a CHP news release.

The CHP reports that 100 of these specially marked patrol vehicles (SMPVs) will be placed throughout the state’s busiest and high-risk highways. Already, 25 have been sent across the state, while other CHP offices will receive the remaining vehicles next month.

The CHP release says the vehicles will blend in with traffic, allowing officers to observe dangerous and reckless driving without being spotted.

Officer Tom Olsen, spokesperson the CHP’s Modesto office, shared an example. Thursday, he was in the SMPV, stopped in traffic on Dale Road, when two vehicles make an illegal passing maneuver using the road’s shoulder. He made an enforcement stop on one of the vehicles, whose driver admitted not noticing Olsen.

Olsen said that if he’d been driving a white-and-black unit, the drivers may have not made that illegal maneuver.

“We all see police vehicles and we tend to slow down. We all do. It’s human nature,” Olsen said. “This vehicle is specific to catching people in the act, so people don’t easily recognize it.”

Olsen said the Modesto office might receive another SMPV. If so, he said, one will be on Highway 99 while the other will be on Interstate 5. If not, the Durango will be used on both.

He also noted the SMPV will be used during daylight hours.

One of the things that sets the SMPV apart from the Modesto office’s other vehicles is its performance, Olsen said. The Durango has a Hemi V8 engine, giving it have at least 293 horsepower. Also helping it blend in is that absence of roof-mounted lights.

The CHP release says officers issued nearly 18,000 citations to drivers driving over 100 mph last year. It says that in recent years, the agency has responded to over 390,000 crashes annually and close to 1,000 daily reports of reckless driving.

“The new vehicles give our officers an important advantage,” CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee says in the release. “They will allow us to identify and stop drivers who are putting others at risk, while still showing a professional and visible presence once enforcement action is needed.”

The CHP Modesto office’s Facebook post introducing the specially marked Durango received hundreds of comments. Predictably, some were critical — “stealthy and nasty,” one person said — and others supportive. “I’m grateful for the CHP’s dedication to keeping our roads safe,” Anna Montez commented. “The new undercover patrol cars are a fantastic idea! As a truck driver, l’ve encountered my share of reckless drivers on Highway 99. It’s not just cars, though - some truck drivers can be pretty reckless too.

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