Continuity mistake: Near the end when they have the 3 black cars, Dom is trying to get Vince off the semi-trailer truck. In some shots we see the stunt driver's brown long sleeve, but other shots we see Dom wearing a white short sleeved shirt. (01:23:21)
Continuity mistake: After Brian shoots Tran, as he and his fallen motorbike slide to a halt there is graffiti on both sides of the tunnel walls. Note some of the graffiti on both walls change, the tags either appear out of nowhere or it disappears. (01:34:15)
Factual error: During the first race a square plate on the floor falls off Brian's Eclipse. The Mitsubishi Eclipse is a unibody car; the frame and body are built as one solid piece, and it does not have floor pans. While some racers might put a steel plate in the interior as a finishing piece, it would be cosmetic only and not part of the vehicle's structure.
Continuity mistake: When Brian and Mia are driving in the Supra at night to follow Dom and his team to stop them, the background never changes. After every cut, they're driving past the same hill. (01:18:05)
Factual error: Dom makes fun of Brian after winning Brian's car in the first race scene. Dom says that Brian was "Granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should." Double-clutching is primarily used by truckers that don't have good synchros on their transmissions or road racers that need to match their transmission speed to the engine speed while downshifting through turns. Granny shifting is upshifting while revs are still low, a technique used to prevent traction loss with powerful torque cars (though it's rare and generally unnecessary). The writer, who is absent of any true racing or automotive knowledge, may have been thinking of power-shifting when he wrote Dom's lines, but the two types of shifting are NOT interchangeable and Dom saying such a thing is a mistake. (00:22:30)
Continuity mistake: After the street race at the start, Leon alerts everyone that the cops are coming. While everyone is scattering you see a closeup of Brian running around to the door of his car and opening it, then a bird's eye view of his car with no-one near it. Then you see other people running and getting into their cars, then you see Brian run up to his car, open the door again and get in. (00:22:52)
Factual error: During the movie, Brian (when confronted by Vince and Dom) talks about Motec exhaust systems. Motec doesn't make exhausts, they make engine management electronics. (00:49:10)
Visible crew/equipment: At the beginning of the movie when it shows the first heist, when it shows the Civics going by, you can see a shadow of the truck/automobile that the camera is on. (00:01:30)
Continuity mistake: At the first race when the cars are driving up to the start line to begin, the car furthest ahead is Brian's car (the green one), then it is Ja Rule's car (the red on with the yellow flames), the white car is third, and behind everyone is Dom's car (the red one). When the cars break at the start line, somehow the order of the cars reverses and Dom's car stops first while Brian's stops last and blows over the line. (00:16:18)
Continuity mistake: In the last truck and 3 cars sequence, when Letty's slides under the rig before flipping her car, the camera starts shaking around, but you can clearly see that Vince is momentarily not on the side of the rig. (01:24:12)
Visible crew/equipment: In one shot where Dom is trying to get Vince off the truck there is a very nice shot of the side of Dom's Civic in which you can see the camera people. (01:20:00)
Revealing mistake: When the three Civics are hijacking the truck at the end you see inside Letty's Civic which is basically stock. When she goes off the road and rolls you see the inside is stripped and has a full rollcage. (01:24:20)
Revealing mistake: In the opening scene when showing the truck full of Panasonic goods, there are products to the ceiling on the left and right, but very little in the center. Trucks are always loaded uniformly to prevent load shift damage, especially the type that would have occurred during the hijack from the swerving side to side. (00:00:50)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Dom pulls up to the street race with his team, he clearly has indiglo gauges. When the 4 cars actually race, Dom glances at his speedometer, and...no indiglo. (00:12:40)
Continuity mistake: When Brian pulls up in the warehouse alley in his Eclipse look at the car to his left. If it looks like Hector's car with no hood and the same chrome engine and graphics on the windshield, that's because it is. But when Hector says "That's mine." he points across the lot and the car is still next to them. (00:11:55)
Other mistake: At the climatic railroad grade-crossing scene towards the end of the movie, the black locomotive (A modernized EMD GP40) is moving entirely too fast for the track's curvature and the height of the rails. The track's rail are of light gauge, for yard rails and switching only. (You see the container yards in the background of the final scenes.) The camera shots also show a zig-zag curve in the railroad tracks - which would definitely be taken at a lower speed. You actually see the locomotive rocking at one point. Good dramatic movie scene - suicidal railroading. Furthermore, the locomotive's driver would have seen a sign for "grade crossing" ahead of the crossing and slowed his train down according to railroad regulations. He would have made two long blasts on his horns, a short and then a long - not a continuous tone as played back in the movie. When a grade crossing is just after a curve - there are severe speed restrictions in effect - 5mph or less - so there is a hope that the train can stop or slow down, should someone cross the tracks at the wrong time. The interior shot of the locomotives cab is wrong. The interior cab of a locomotive is not symmetrical. The old standard cabbed EMD's have two windows in the center where-as the interior shot only shows one center window. The locomotive's parked windscreen wipers are also not shown from the inside. (01:37:25)
Visible crew/equipment: During the SWAT raid on Johnny Tran, when SWAT breaks down the door, sending the top moulding flying, you'll see a hand come from the right side to ensure it doesn't hit the cameraman. (01:03:15)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie where Brian and Dominic try to beat the speeding train, Brian's windshield wipers are suddenly on. Then the camera cuts away, and then back, and the wipers are now off.
Factual error: In the first hijacking, one of the Honda Civics slips under the truck's trailer to avoid the road crew. Trailers with that much ground clearance do not exist, also trailers have a safety guard running the length of that space designed to prevent this very scenario from happening with a lower vehicle. The trailer has been modified to ride much higher than normal to make this stunt possible. The modifications to the lowered Honda are not sufficient to fit beneath an un-altered trailer. (00:02:35)
Continuity mistake: At the scene where Johnny Tran pumps oil into the mechanic's mouth, the shirt of the mechanic changes from REALLY wet, to almost dry in every shot. (00:52:45)
Answer: There are two ideas of why the police did not come around. Firstly they might have found out after the car chase that Brian was an undercover cop so it would be more effective to allow him to try and discover information instead of going around and arresting Dom. The other idea is that the police might not have enough to arrest him. Dom was not the one driving when they found him and other than racing, it might be tough to arrest him.
Lummie ★
Cops are usually completely unaware of an undercover cop's identity. The more, realistic reason is that the cop didn't ID Dom and since Brian's car was later destroyed, there's nothing for them to investigate. Afterwards, they might ID Dom, but there's an investigation on him, so they'd leave him alone.