BOISE -- For 75 years, Idaho State Police patrol cars have been hard to miss.
"Quite frankly, the black car and white stripes is a proud tradition of ISP," said Idaho State Police Lt. Col. Kedrick Wills. "We have no intentions of getting rid of the marked units."
But soon, ISP troopers may be able to fly under the radar, if the Idaho Legislature approves.
"The marked patrol car is a billboard, a moving billboard if you will that puts everybody on their best behavior," said Wills. "We're asking for a change in state law to allow ISP to use unmarked vehicles for patrol purposes."
ISP detectives already use unmarked vehicles for investigations. Now, they want to put them to use on the highways to curb aggressive and distracted driving.
"The texting while driving law that was just passed has kind of brought this to the forefront, that we recognize that this is a huge issue," said Wills.
According to the Idaho Transportation Department, distracted drivers were involved in 19 percent of all fatal crashes in 2014. Aggressive drivers were involved in 48 percent of fatalities in 2014.
"We definitely see it in our own cars, but in our marked patrol cars it's very different what you don't see versus what we see in our own cars," said Wills.
ITD records show that fatal crashes are down overall, falling 12.5 percent from 2010. ISP hopes that just the idea that a trooper could be anywhere will keep that number from rising.
"We want to make sure that we can translate that into anytime that we're on our roadways in Idaho," said Wills.
Opponents of the change say adding unmarked cars is simply not necessary.
"The ISP has motorcycle units, they have SUVs, they use pickup trucks, rolling radar," said Fred Birnbaum, vice presided of the Idaho Freedom Foundation. "I think they're more than capable with the assets they have of achieving public safety on our highways."
Birnbaum says that the new vehicles could actually challenge public safety.
"It would allow people who would potentially be police impersonators could just get a set of red and blue lights, put them on a plain car and then pull people over," said Birnbaum.
ISP has said that if the Idaho Legislature approves the bill, its first order of business would be education.
"We would not have people in plain clothes with patrol functions. Period. No matter what they're driving they will be in a full ISP uniform," said Wills.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Freedom Foundation would like to see the badge remain in full view.
"We will testify against this bill, most likely, when it appears before the committee."
