**The World of Police Cars**

Police cars are not just any car off the road; they must meet specific specifications and have extra equipment added to them by the manufacturer. These vehicles need to be able to sit for hours in various conditions, yet take off screaming at full throttle in a moment's notice, all while being durable enough to endure high-stress conditions and high speeds.

This makes police cars heavy; on average, they are about 500-1000 pounds heavier than their civilian siblings. Despite this, these cars have proven to be extremely capable machines.

**The Ford Crown Victoria**

Arguably the most iconic cop car of all time, the Ford Crown Victoria has been a ubiquitous presence in law enforcement for years. It was often pitted against the Chevy Caprice in a "fight to the death" to be the top cop car in the US. However, when the Caprice was discontinued in 1996 due to internal financial struggles and demand for more SUVs, the Crown Vic had no competition.

The V8-powered 2-ton unkillable workhorse police force icon earned the respect of enthusiasts and law enforcement alike for its dependability. The Crown Vic became the de facto cop car for so many years because of its body-on-frame construction, which allowed it to take all kinds of abuse without damaging the frame.

**The Ford Mustang SSP**

Years of underperforming overly heavy sedans left the California Highway Patrol wanting a faster car. So, in the early 90s, they started testing the Chevy Camaro. However, camshaft and engine failures at high speed drove the CHP to reach out to Ford for a capable lightweight pursuit vehicle.

The Mustang SSP proved to be quick and useful in the hands of police across the country and ended up being used in over 60 law enforcement organizations. This notchback Mustang 5.0 could reach 60 miles per hour faster than most other cars, making it a favorite among police officers.

**The Shift to SUVs**

Today, we see a new breed of police car more and more often – straying away from the long-favored four-door sedan platform. SUVs and even trucks are showing up in highway patrol fleets and in police departments all over the country.

In 2012, Dodge released a special edition of a 1500 RAM for police work, which was quite impressive. Ford wasn't far behind in 2018, releasing the first-ever pursuit-rated police pickup to hit the market.

These trucks, however, barely measure up to the success of the Ford Explorer, which now makes up about half all law enforcement vehicles in the US. The Explorer Interceptor's all-wheel drive and available turbocharged EcoBoost engines make it a favorite among police officers.

**Conclusion**

Modern police vehicles still reflect car culture at large and the changing needs of the police. So next time you break the speed limit, double-check that these cruisers aren't your rear-view! They might not be the fire-breathing muscle cars they were in the 60s, but they'll have no problem keeping up.

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Want to know more about the Crown Vic or other police cars? Check out our episodes of Up-to-Speed and Science Garage on superchargers! Wear a seat belt, and see you later!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe Fox Body Mustang, The Plymouth Belvedere, The Flathead FordThese are some of the most bad-ass and revered names in hot rodding,but you might be surprised to hear that they were also,*Music* Woop Woop, That's the sound of the PoliceCop cars? Police cruisers play a large role in American society and pop culture as their place in filmsTelevision and the news have cemented the black and white rides in our collective consciousness. *Movie Scene* It's got a cop motor,It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. Here's how some of America's coolest cars were put in the line of dutyThe first police car ever used was in Akron Ohio. It was bought by city authorities in 1899The Collins buddy company made a car for around $2,400adjusted for inflation and the first police car cost 65 G's in today's money.Two four horsepower electric motors powered the battery run vehiclethe police car had a blistering top speed of around 16 mph and a 30 mile rangesuck on that Tesla. It also had headlights and a cell for captured troublemakersit was the first horseless police vehicle ever used in the US and it could fit 12 people or aSquad of officers. It's a squad car! it carried the whole squad!Akron Police used for the squad car to transport large amounts of officers to problem areas before thenThey had to use horse-drawn wagons, or walkthe invention of the squad car changed police mobility overnight the 15 year stretch of prohibition from1918 to 1933 is when police departments really started to see the necessity of the squad carOutlaws hoping to make easy money running hooch would use hopped up automobiles to transport and maybe get in a few shootouts along the wayThe police couldn't rely on vehicles like the Akron squad car or contemporary gas-powered cars like the Model TThey were completely obsolete at this pointThere was an arms race between the police and organized crime to see who could have the fastest car and the gangsters were winningTurns out crime does pay in full for some pretty sweet ridesSo all these police departments needed a fast car to match these guysBut the Depression had wiped out their budgetsSo it also needed to be cheap fast and cheap don't really go togetherBut Ford had a solution the model 18 this model V variant was particularlyAttractive with its savage (for the time) flathead v8 under the hoodThis is the same engine that early hot rodders used in their builds. And now the police have it tooThe arms race was a little more even police can now keep up with the moonshiners and do their jobsAfter prohibition ended booze runners still built up their cars but started taking them to the track instead in NASCAR was bornafter world war two, improved radios communicationsMeant you could put an officer in a car with a radio and patrol a much wider areaWhen police would walk a beat you could just run up and grab an officer if he needed thembut now that they were in cars it meant that they needed a way to let people know there was police insideand to help civilians easily identify them the police started experimenting with paint schemesmost cars arrived to departments in just black or white finishes the officers decided to add thethe officers decided to add the opposite color on top of whatever they got to complete the lookwhite or black paint is also really cheap so that helpedthe end result is the standard scheme we know today the black and whitethe contrast helps it stand out and it's instantly recognizable as a police vehicleSo why are cop cars in Britain so brightly colored by comparison?Many European emergency vehicles use something called battenberg markingsuper high visibility paint jobs that minimize the risk of road accidents and alert the populace to the presence of emergency respondersthey basically do the same thing as our black and whites but in a flashier wayOur cops wanted to be distinguishable without completely standing out but in EuropeThey want everyone to know they're a cop from hundreds of metres awayBack in America, it's the 60s and police cars of the era are reflecting America's obsession with speedAnd one company was dominating the police market: Chrysler.How'd they rule a segment? A little bit of friendly competitionEven though selling cars to the police makes up a small amount of business for manufacturerslanding a big sale to a well-known law enforcement agency like theNYPD or LAPD can pay off huge dividends in free marketingafter all if a car is tough enough for the cops then it's probably tough enough for you, tooChrysler loved pitting its brands against each other in the 60sthey did it in NASCAR and they would do it with the police car market tooPlymouth and Dodge were akin to jealous childrenWhatever one got the other one wanted even moreit was a never-ending battle for Chrysler friends because whoever got more sales got more money for their projectstit for tat warfare ensued as they both raced to net the same customer groups, including the police1965 Dodge Polara pursuit used the 413 cubic inch max wedge v8 that pulled quarter miles in 15 secondswhich was very impressive for the time four years later a monstrosity was born the1969 Polara pursuit rolled around with a375 horsepower seven point two liter 440 Magnum engine and was an absolute tank. This was one staunch puppyIt was the same Polaris suit that held the record for the highest top speed of any Chrysler cop car at the company's Chelsea proving grounds oval147 miles an hour. That's an impressive speed for an American 4-door todaybut especially for one from the 60s similar to the 69 Polara theSimilar to the '69 Polara, the 1970 dodge Coronet was powered by the very same hard to kill Magnum 440 engineThe Coronet featured an aggressive grille andheadlights set that made it look like it. Wanted to eat you alivein 1968 Plymouth revamped their styling and the Belvedere pursuit was bornBig, clean, and super mean, the Belvedere was a rear-wheel drive law enforcement machineThe police version of the Belvedere sedan had a winning combination of power and affordabilityFor police in cities and large towns it was almost perfect combinationThe Belvedere police package was so capable that it caught the eye of muscle car enthsusiastsThe police were getting this badass street king and the public wanted it, tooso in 1968 Plymouth took the cop car's engine and performance partsand then jammed them into a two-door shell to create a top-shelf belly variant, the RoadrunnerEven though Chrysler was running the cop car game that didn't stop other companies from tryingEven AMC was attempting to break into the market the most successful of their police cars was the Matador enforcerBut perhaps the most surprising was the AMX javelin. Wait, what did I just say? The AMX javelin was a cop car?Yes. Yes, I did the Alabama State Patrol was in a budget crunch and needed to save money on its upcoming patrol car orderSo smaller cars were being looked at AMC was looking to promote sales any way they couldAnd police service especially for javelins would offer great public exposureSo AMC made a huge price concession to make this sale happenAll Alabama police javelins were fitted with a sick rear spoiler normally available only on the javelin amx modelBut not for functional reasons like improved high speed handlingInstead it was actually needed in order to display the state trooper markings on the rear end of the carThat would otherwise be unreadable due to the deck lid's extreme angleNot just any car off the road can be a police carThere are many specifications that must be met by the manufacturer and extra equipment that is added to the vehicleThe car has to be able to sit for hours in various conditions yet take off screaming at full throttle in a moment's noticeAll while being durable enough to endure and function high-stress conditions and at high speedsThis makes these cars heavyI mean REALLY heavypolice versions are on average about five hundredto a thousand pounds heavier than their civilian siblings even still these cars proved to be extremely capable machinesIt would be a crime not to mention the Ford Crown VictoriaArguably the most iconic cop car of all timeFor years the Crown Vic and the Chevy Caprice were battling it out to be the top cop car in the u.sThey were deadlocked in a proverbial fight to the death. The ultimate rivals destined to fight foreverBut then all of a sudden the Caprice was goneChevy ended production in1996 because of internal financial struggles and demand for more SUVsso now the Vic had no competitionThat's not the only reason it became the ubiquitous police cruiserswe know today the v8 packing 2 ton unkillable workhorse police force icon earned the respect ofenthusiasts and law enforcement alike for its dependabilitythe Crown Vic became the de facto cop car for so many years because of its body on frame constructionThe Vic could take all kinds of abuse from cops and criminals and keep on truckin any energy spent damaging the bodyWouldn't damage the frame meaning the car could perform repeated pursuit tactics like the pit maneuver over and over and be just fineBut you want to know what wasn't two tons and can catch about anyone?The Ford Mustang SSPyears of underperforming overly heavy sedans left the California Highway Patrol wanting a faster carso in the early 90sThey started testing the Chevy CamaroBut camshaft and engine failures at high speed drove the CHP to reach out to Ford for a capable lightweight pursuit vehicleThe SSP proved to be quick and useful in the hands of police across the countryand ended up being used in over 60 law enforcement organizationsthis notchback Mustang 5.0 could reach 60 miles per hour faster than george costanza to tell us he's an architectI'm, uh, I'm also an architectthe stiffer than stock frame and upgraded suspension made the Mustang SSP a favorite for use in drag racingthese days the SSPs have been largely retired from police and government workOnly a few law enforcement agencies still keep them in their stable.Get it? Mustang...horseThe Crown Vic is still in use all over the country, but it's slowly being phased outThese days we see a new breed of police car more and more oftenstraying away from the long favored four-door sedan platformSUVs and even trucks are showing up in highway patrol fleets and in police departments all over the countryin 2012 Dodge released a special edition of a 1500 RAM for police work, which let's face itIs pretty badassFord wasn't far behind in 2018, releasing the first ever pursuit rated police pick up to hit the marketThese trucks though barely measure up to the success of the Ford Explorerwhich now makes up about half all law enforcement vehicles in the u.sThe Explorer interceptor's all-wheel drive and available with Ford's turbocharged EcoBoost enginesWith police having to carry more equipment than ever beforethe fast, spacious and state-of-the-art SUVs are taking over with no signs of slowing downEven though many of the v8 police sedans are disappearingModern police vehicles still reflect car culture at large and the changing needs of the police. So next time you break the speed limitDouble-check that these cruisers aren't your rear-view. They might not be the fire-breathing muscle carsThey were in the 60s, but they'll have no problem keeping upWe look at the lesser-known stories in the car world every week here on wheelhouse. So smash that subscribe buttonSo you never miss an episode. What's the biggest ticket you ever got? What's your favorite weird cop car?Let me know in the commentsI read all of themEven if they hurt my feelingsif you want to know more about the Crown Vic check out this episode of up-to-speedOr check out this episode of science garage on superchargers because blowers are awesome wear a seat belt. See you later