One year later, I witnessed something strange while I walked up Second Avenue. A taxicab had pulled over another taxicab. The vehicle to the rear was indistinguishable from the cab in front of it with the one notable exception being the flashing red and blue lights hidden inside the grill.

In 2010, the NYPD taxis briefly made headlines on the internet when a video of a cab pulling over a car surfaced on YouTube. Since then, occasional sightings have led to the expansion of the myth of the undercover "cop cab," but little has been proven. In an attempt to find out more about this elusive police tool, I made four requests to the NYPD through the Freedom of Information Act.

The requests were relatively simple. I asked for any manuals or procedures that dictated how and under what circumstances the fake taxis were to be used, any legal justifications acquired or written allowing for the use of these vehicles or the creation of a false medallion numbers, any invoices or bills for the cost of acquired or retrofitting a taxicab, and finally any communications between the NYPD and the Taxi and Limousine Commission concerning the use of these vehicles.