Police vehicles - What makes/models have you seen our there?

[Moflow]

So I believe the good one, here in the U.S. at least, is the Caprice PPV.

Totally boring looking but a few of them have iron block LS based engines displacing 6.2L. It's the same platform as the old Pontiac G8/Chevy SS, so it's actually australian under there.

I have a friend that bought a used one from an auction and then swapped an LSA supercharger from a cadillac CTS-V onto the car. It was a hilarious burnout machine on shitty all season tires.

This is not my friend's car, but it is a supercharged Caprice PPV.

Here's a stock one circling VIR

[Salty Dog]

That looks like the Debit card machine at the grocery store. WTF?

[kb2wji]

Those PPV's are fast. Tennessee Highway Patrol used them for a while - then realized that any repairs require parts from Australia or some such thing, so they didn't order many. Faster than the Hemi's though.

[zx10guy]

Unmarked Ford Fusion

Marked C4 Vette

[E92William]

I have even seen a police repo f10 m5 as an undercover cop. I've seen altimas and hyundais. Any car can be a cop car nowadays.

[IanMan]

In Hawaii, Cops are allowed to drive their civilian vehicles for patrol as long as it's on the approved list. I've seen a Mercedes C-Class and a few odd ones, but mostly Toyotas.

[Salty Dog]

Originally Posted by IanMan

In Hawaii, Cops are allowed to drive their civilian vehicles for patrol as long as it's on the approved list. I've seen a Mercedes C-Class and a few odd ones, but mostly Toyotas.

I've never understood this, PC takes a beating the fleet cars have purpose built brakes, suspension, chassis, electrical systems etc just to stand up to the day to day use. Why would anyone want to use their personal car for work. In my experience statistically every police car on the road is involved in some type of collision annually.

Makes no sense from liability, maintenance and availability issues.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

That looks like the Debit card machine at the grocery store. WTF?

Yep!

Sofortkasse... You have to PAY on the spot in Germany. IF you have German plates... you can/may - pay via bank wire transfer. IF you are from another country... No credit card ? The cops drive you to the nearest ATM. No Joke!





In some countries like Italy, the fine might be say 90 euros by mail, but IF you admit guilt and pay on the spot(in cash) the fine could be as little as 30 euros. This happened to some friends of mine. He was driving in excess of 120 kph on an Alpine road(Sella, Dolomites) where the official speed limit is only 50 kph out in the country side. Everyone drives 80 to 100 kph. The cops couldn't keep up with him in his M2 vs their Fiat Uno... He didn't even know they were giving chase(they forgot to turn on their blue lights!)... he pulled over for a photo... that's when they had a "little" discussion! lol He paid his "negotiated" 30 euro fine in the end.

In Switzerland... its the opposite... I had a friend drive spiritedly on an Alpine pass... he drove 119 in a 80 kph zone... his fine was 1,400 euros on the spot! The cops said two more kph faster and the fine would have been 5K euros. Speeding in Switzerland is no joke!!

Dackel

[Salty Dog]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Yep!

Sofortkasse... You have to PAY on the spot in Germany. IF you have German plates... you can/may - pay via bank wire transfer. IF you are from another country... No credit card ? The cops drive you to the nearest ATM. No Joke!


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In some countries like Italy, the fine might be say 90 euros by mail, but IF you admit guilt and pay on the spot(in cash) the fine could be as little as 30 euros. This happened to some friends of mine. He was driving in excess of 120 kph on an Alpine road(Sella, Dolomites) where the official speed limit is only 50 kph out in the country side. Everyone drives 80 to 100 kph. The cops couldn't keep up with him in his M2 vs their Fiat Uno... He didn't even know they were giving chase(they forgot to turn on their blue lights!)... he pulled over for a photo... that's when they had a "little" discussion! lol He paid his "negotiated" 30 euro fine in the end.

In Switzerland... its the opposite... I had a friend drive spiritedly on an Alpine pass... he drove 119 in a 80 kph zone... his fine was 1,400 euros on the spot! The cops said two more kph faster and the fine would have been 5K euros. Speeding in Switzerland is no joke!!

Dackel

So what about "due process & innocent until proven guilty"? Just sayin'

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

So what about "due process & innocent until proven guilty"? Just sayin'

Different land(country) and different laws.

IF you get caught speeding(or any other driving infraction) you are done. Your only hope of getting off is to hire an attorney and getting "off" by some technical mistake by the cops. This is why most people in Germany drive so "nicely". This is also why most Germans when they leave Germany... they are more aggressive... in their driving style.


Over here in Germany, the polizei can stop anyone to "check" them out. There is no probable cause to stop and search a car & check to make sure everything is in order. Just routine traffic stops. This even applies to technical specs of a car... say IF the car was mod'd without the proper paperwork/documents. ie: TUV approval and registration of said mods in the car's registration papers.

[NEFARIOUS]

We all know about Chargers, Crown Vics and Chargers, but I saw that in Alabama, they're more likely to use Chevy Tahoes, and in Burbank, CA they used more Caprices (just to throw people off looking out for the usual cars, especially since they are notorious for pulling people over for random reasons </sarcasm>)...

Back when I was in Cali I've seen an undercover Dodge Caravan in Alhambra, CA pulling someone over alongside your usual Crown Vics, and the LAPD had a pilot plan to use BMW I3s, but hardly anybody there used it and I've only seen one being driven once.

[pennsiveguy]

The Ford Interceptor sedans and SUVs are really popular around here. Especially the SUVs, since they're better in snow. I'd say 90% of the cop cars less than 5 years old are Interceptors.

[MADBMWX5MC]

Ha! ^Yes, I remember seeing all them nice Polizei vehicles flying down the Autobahn when I was stationed there in the early 2000. Mercedes Benz yellow cabs too!

[GERMAN M3]

Somewhat off topic, but do these Crown Vics count??? ....

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by GERMAN M3

Somewhat off topic, but do these Crown Vics count??? ....

Are those police cars or Uber or Lyft drivers?

[GERMAN M3]

Originally Posted by Captain Blood

Are those police cars or Uber or Lyft drivers?

I would venture to say LYFT drivers!

[ShocknAwe]

Here... All Ford SUVs, interceptors for city, Chevy Caprice for sheriff's, chargers and crown vics for state/HP. Transport is variety of debadged Tahoe's, and Ford fusion sport is a favorite for general unmarked.

The Caprice aka heavily modified Impalas are absolutely no joke. Very cool cars.

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Here... All Ford SUVs, interceptors for city, Chevy Caprice for sheriff's, chargers and crown vics for state/HP. Transport is variety of debadged Tahoe's, and Ford fusion sport is a favorite for general unmarked.

The Caprice aka heavily modified Impalas are absolutely no joke. Very cool cars.

Pretty much the same here in the upstate.

[JeffB-M3]

Saw a basic white Ford F250 work truck -- like what a construction contractor with all the tool boxes would have -- in Durham, NC. That's cheating!

[pennsiveguy]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

So what about "due process & innocent until proven guilty"? Just sayin'

The major metro areas of Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago are connected by Interstate 90/94 running right through Wisconsin. It's a proven and reliable revenue generator for the Wisconsin Highway Patrol to write speeding tickets for out-of-state cars. I haven't gotten one in a while, but it used to be that since most folks from out of state aren't going to want to come back to appear in court, you could pay on-the-spot with a credit card and be done with the matter. I think most folks opted to do so, since they warned you that if you don't send in payment and don't show up for court, the summons will turn into an arrest warrant and the fine will be doubled. They made it clear, though, if you wanted to go to court on the ticket, you could call up in a week or so and get your scheduled court date.

It was one of these Wisc. Troopers who pulled me over and one of his first questions was "Why were you going so fast?" to which I replied "Because I didn't see you."

[kb2wji]

Sorry, just felt like telling a story - I know this is a "what's out there" thread. My 2017 Explorer Interceptor just got replaced with a 2021 Explorer Interceptor Hybrid. (I got side swiped .... RIP '17 Interceptor).

My 5000 mile review of the Interceptor Hybrid:

Good -
Great mileage. It runs on electric almost exclusively while stopped while keeping all the systems / climate control running.
It's faster than the base V6 I had (but no, it's not a fast vehicle by any reasonable measure. I've only had 1 pursuit in it with a Kia Optima. Mid 130's for about 10 miles on the highway before he wrecked himself. Car performed well at that speed - for such a heavy SUV anyway)
Cool tech - the perimeter alert system is incredible. I set a "perimeter" around the vehicle and it tracks cars and people in real time along with an audible alert. It's potentially a life saver when my head is buried in the computer. It'll also put the windows up automatically if someone is approaching the car - and I can track them on the display on the dash to know exactly where they are in real time. Super cool - I hope this type of system makes it into all police vehicles.
Not exclusive to the Hybrid, but this one has a "rumbler". It's an additional tone to go along with the siren. A low "rumble" that really gets drivers attention much better than a regular police siren.

The bad -
The hybrid system isn't even close to being smooth. It generally has no idea what it's doing - it starts from a stop on all electric (assuming gentle throttle) and kicks in the gas engine after 5-10 mph. The gas engine always seems "surprised". It's definitely not seamless.
Reliability is horrible. Ford could really learn a thing or two about reliability from Alfa Romeo or Land Rover...yeah, that bad. 5000 miles currently, 3 trips to Ford. First issue was the entire dash went out. I could see the needles but that was it. Ford reflashed the computer and it fixed it. Then the car refused to engage the gas engine. Got to about 40mph on electric and I could tell it was about to explode. I stopped and turned off the car which fixed the issue. For about an hour. Back to Ford. Reflash the computer. Fixed it (fingers crossed). Now the car goes into limp mode at random times and my little wrench light is on, indicating a select track error or some such thing. Happens at random times. I feel pretty awesome stopped in the middle of the road with my flashers on while I turn the key on and off a million times to trick it into thinking it's not a piece of crap. Can't wait to see how many trips it makes to Ford in the next 5000 miles.

My '17 compared to the '21 Hybrid - The 17 was a tighter, better handling vehicle. It felt much lighter which is to expected as the Hybrid has approximately one million pounds of batteries. The 21 rides smoother (I think partially due to more tire). The interior seems a little more spacious on the 21 but that could be my mind playing tricks on me since the center console / computer mount is different. The '17 was build more "solid" feeling. Everything from the interior plastics to the feel of the doors was more solid on the 17. The door handles on the 21 feel like they're about to break already.

What i'd like Ford to build: An updated Crown Vic with AWD. Is that too much to ask for? You could drive a Crown Vic head on into a freight train and just buff out the scratches. These new Interceptors get an electronic head cold any time you look at them cross eyed or ask them to navigate over a pothole.

Anyway, sorry for the rant - just not tired enough to go to bed yet and maybe someone on here cares

[m3fuz]

I feel like the only things I see in MA for local police or state troopers are Ford Explorers.