P.C.V. = "Probable Cause Vehicle"
This is a vehicle that is just begging to be pulled over by the
police either because of the
car, itself, the passengers, or the behavior of the
car and/or passengers. Often has a lot to do with the location of the
car at the time. This, itself,
will give the cops all they need to legally wrangle even an undeserved pull-over and search into a lawful bust of the occupants.
Any number of things can cause a
car to be a P.C.V. - most have to do with the environment in which the particular
car is found. A P.C.V. might not be a P.C.V. in one place, but becomes one in another. In other words, wrong vehicle in the wrong place.
It is possible for a P.C.V. to be a P.C.V. everywhere, though.
If you find yourself in a PCV, don't bitch at the
police for pulling you over. They're doing their job and you were probably being a moron. Automobile profiling is an effective law enforcement tool.
That beat up panel van with Florida tags full of Latinos doing exactly a double nickel on the New Jersey Turnpike is the classic P.C.
V. (high probability of running
drugs to NYC).
Your AMC Pacer with the bondo quarter-panels and the primer paint-job was fine in Newark (NJ), but it became a P.C.V. as soon as you entered Bergen County.
P.C.V. Alert! Homey with the humps in the trunk cruising the burbs is going to get treated like Rodney King.
Poor Trevor...didn't realize that driving his
daddy's Beamer to 118th Street to score some blow put him in the hot-seat of a P.C.V. Now he's AFU and
SOL.
Cheech and
Chong's
hippie-filled van with the expired tags leaving a trail of purple haze behind it would be a P.C.V. no matter where it is.
