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I wanted to add some detail to this comment on 'some sort' of government vehicles with those exempt plates...

My government car when I worked for local governemt had those "Exempt" plates. If they said Exempt or had a diamond with an E in it in the old days it was a State of California Vehicle, If it had a rectangle with chopped corners and an E it was a city or county vehicle. The number of Exempt plates got so large they just say exempt across the top and have a long number, no more Es.

These plates are issued to governmental agencies and are found on cop cars, fire trucks and transit district buses too, all exempt means is they are exempt from vehicle licensing fees since they are official vehicles, most meter maids will not touch an unmarked vehicle with exempt plates because you never know who is driving one. If you run a vehicle check on the tag it will come back City or County of... but not be specific on the department in most cases (this varies with the agencies involved).

In rare instances the feds or others might use them as a cover. The best undercover cop car I ever saw was in Oakland, CA a Gremlin with Illonis plates but was an OPD undercover car...