Whats's With The Hat?


There is a scene towards the beginning where, just when they start to give chase to Sal, they put a hat in the back dashboard just below the rear windshield. Why do they do that?

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From what I understand it was a system they had going to let fellow cops know that they were undercover.

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But they were never "undercover". I think it just meant they were on the job, possibly tailing someone.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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Ok they were plainclothes police (detectives) in an unmarked police vehicle, the hat perched in back was to indicate this to fellow police.

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I don't buy that explanation. If it's something that all cops knew, then for sure criminals would know it too - at least the organized ones who were pretty good at figuring out that they were being followed.

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It was an early edition of what contemporary cops call, "the color of the day." Because undercover policemen were routinely accidentally shot by fellow officers (minority undercovers were the chief victims), systems were designed to protect undercovers by alerting precincts throughout the five boroughs "today's undercover color is green," "today's undercover color is orange." Undercover officers are outfitted with that day's particular color (a red bandanna, a purple wristband, a lime green baseball cap). Of course, the system is not infallible, but it helps if other cops see a man running down the street with a gun. The color of the day is the one identifying feature that can save the undercover cop's life.

As to the hat in the back window, again it would have been something that was rotated in and out of service, possibly on a week by week basis. Hat this week, baseball glove next week, red ribbon hanging out of the trunk the following week. Like today, the alert would come from the Police Headquarters and gone out to all the borough commands and relayed to police officers at roll call.

Unlike today's "color of the day," the hat in the window was less about the risk of detectives jumping out of the car with their guns drawn than parking and leaving their car without fear of getting a parking summons or if they run a red light while tailing a suspect and are pulled over by a squad car, it saves them the time of drawing their shields and ID's to identify themselves.

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Thanks, that's a great explanation! Much more than I expected.

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Great explanation, as ever!

Of course the irony of this "cop awareness" idea is that Mulderig was killed by Popeye - and both men were wearing hats!







“When is old news gonna be old news?”
― Arnold Vinick (The West Wing)

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Whether you don't buy it or not it's an explanation that is frequently mentioned online ("according to William Friedkin...") and seems a logical signal system the way it is shown- in a film that went out of its way to be "real". EDIT: just saw your post wrfarley, thanks good stuff.

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Ha! It helps to have NYPD (mostly deceased) family members.

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It was both a silly and illogical prop. This was extremely clear when they were switching off survalance on the streets. If he wore a regular Hat instead of making it a Pork Pie hat that might have passed if there were still a lot of men wearing them. But a Pork Pie hat made him stand out from others, and that's exactly what you don't want when following someone. Sort of like using a marked squad car while following on the street

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I think this could be a reference to the English idiom "To hang your hat on [something]" which means to depend on something. Its pejorative meaning most commonly comes as a warning of something that might not be dependable or reliable, as in, "I wouldn't hang my hat on it."

This might be off-base but I could see it being a symbol or foreshadowing in the film that they were "hanging their hat on" the case. Seeing as how they went all in on the case with a complete win at all costs attitude that it was foreshadowing that it could all come crashing down on them, which is what obviously happens in the end.


Promise me, no matter how hopeless things get, keep on trying, OK? Keep coming chin-up, OK?

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