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.