For the sixth consecutive year, Lexus will hang out its shingle at the National Police Fleet Managers Association Conference in Swindon, UK. According to Easier Motoring, the brand will be "demonstrating the qualities that make Lexus models ideal for police work." ToMoCo's hybrid models, known for their low operating costs and reliability, are already popular with UK law enforcement fleet managers. Meanwhile, the McCook (IL) police department's approaching its patrol car needs from a more "traditional" perspective. Suburban Life reports they've just taken delivery of two Hemified Dodge Chargers. The Chief's making no bones about his carbon-oblivious reasoning: "The new cars are painted metallic black with white graphics that are slightly slanted. McCook Police Chief Frank Wolfe hopes that these graphics give the effect that the cars are moving very quickly, and that they cannot be outrun… 'With the new cars, people will notice us, and hopefully, in most cases that will stop them from committing a crime.'" Old School.
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The car in the picture is a last-gen GS, which didn’t exist in hybrid form.
Police forces world wide should use the Toyota Prius as a police car. I’m absolutely dead serious. Even with tons of idling (the Prius gas engine would cycle on and off) I’d bet they could get 35 mpg US, vs what, 12 for Crown Vics? Hey, it’s OUR tax money they’re p*ssing away in gas.
Reason for Prius? Well, the car has plenty of room (within an inch in every dimension for room inside, compared to a Crown Victoria with V8). It accelerates to 60 within 1 second of what a Crown Vic Police Special (V8) can do.
So it misses out on top speed (106 vs 121). Big deal. “You can’t outrun MOTOROLA” as the old saying goes.
Besides, I do believe that high speed chases are now banned in many locations. Too dangerous for the general public.
It’s time for the police to have an equivalent of the taser, for shooting from their vehicle to the vehicle being chased – which will overwhelm the electrical system in the perp’s car, isn’t it?
Bang – zap – car stops. No more high speed chases.
Hey, if I can get a fully grown Newfoundland into the back of my Prius (and she is comfortable and happy to go riding/walking and swimming) then cops can get 2 or 3 perps in the back.
The center armrest would have to be deleted at the factory to provide room for the shotgun rack. Toyota could provide rear disc brakes (a la the Euro version of the Prius) for extra braking capacity.
glenn126–what happens when you jump a curb in a prius?
if high speed chases are banned, then a car tazer that makes power brakes and steering disappear had better be banned too.
cops should just ride horses and have stinger or javelin shoulder-launched missiles. wait, no–that’s what *I* want. the cops have to walk.
i agree nicknick. The toyaota Prius is an excellent vehicle for personal use but i can’t stand up to the beating the police force puts on their vehicles.
I work for a Ford dealership and we service evrytype of vehicle known to man. The hybird cars are light wieght meaning the crash ratio is lower than that of a Crown Vic.
If your doing something illegal are you really going to let a banning law stopp you? If your a officer are you really going to let the criminal get away?
The crown vic is a heavy duty vehicle used for the dirty work it is not great for the environment but it is the best option for what it does
Nicknick, perps don’t “have” to outrun cops. When the power steering goes, they can use armstrong power steering (they’ve surely got adrenalin going anyway) and power brakes normally provide 2-3 stops without the engine running (after which you have to use much more leg power but can still stop). Besides, with no engine power, they’ll eventually stop – that’s the idea!
A Prius is much more heavy duty than you think. Modern unit body cars with high strength steel are phenomenally strong (obvious exception – Chinese cars which aren’t high strength steel anyway). I think I’d rather take my chances in a Prius (5 star crash ratings) rather than a Crown Vic (fuel tank behind rear axle – kaboom).
One of the (other) toughest uses of any vehicle is TAXI use – look how strong Checkers used to be made – and Prius cars are being used as Taxicabs and running 250,000 miles without trouble.
As for jumping a curb and breaking the FWD, well, Chevy Impala cop cars are also front wheel drive, aren’t they?
Here’s a little synopsis of what I was talking about.
http://www.toyoland.com/prius/hybrid-police-cars.html
I’m fully aware that “conventional think” is to say “gotta have a fast, big, car to show the perps we can catch them” but that’s OLD THINK.
Michigan State Police recently announced they had to cut down on cruising of patrol cars because the state cannot afford the fuel. MSP are the guys who come out and help people who have accidents at high speed on the expressway, for example.
Wait until gas is $3.65 a gallon again (gas just jumped 8 cents a gallon here locally last night), or $5 a gallon. Then talk to me about how we “have” to have V8 cop cars.
“Wait until gas is $3.65 a gallon again (gas just jumped 8 cents a gallon here locally last night), or $5 a gallon. Then talk to me about how we “have” to have V8 cop cars.”
So, not in the next five years then?
I give the high speed chase only a few more years before the cops will just throw a foam robot out the window that will fly along after the idiots until they stop.
Motorola gets even better with air support.
I could see a mix of small econoboxes and Prius type cars for urban duty, along with faster sedans for highway patrol.
You already see this in Europe, where the VW Golf is a common police vehicle for urban work. Undercover cops already use a variety of cars (one guy I know who does undercover work for a major US police department is currently driving a Toyota Camry for undercover duty.) I assume that they call in for a larger vehicle with a cage in the back to actually haul the suspect back to jail.
One year of 24/7 cop car use can probably rack up $50,000 of gasoline… that’s what, half a police officer? Sure every fleet should have heavy duty cars and trucks, but I think it’d make total sense for part of police fleets to be Priuses.
Gas prices were $1.98 locally on January 1. Here it is August 14th, and gas is $2.90 a gallon.
That’s “significantly” higher than the official inflation rate (interestingly enough, our esteemed government officials through the “fed” has decided to remove food and energy from the “official” inflation rate figure – probably because food is going up at 25% and energy 33%).
Actually, my figures show that energy went up 46.46% in 8 1/2 months, if you just take gasoline as the measure.
So, ret, get back to me in oh a few months and we’ll check on the price of gasoline then, shall we? Here’s a hint – it’s called fossil fuels. As in, there ain’t any new fossils being made as fast as we’re pulling it out of the ground. Ergo, it will eventually – run out (but before that happens, what is left will become the economic equivalent of “unobtainium”).
I think Glenn has a couple of potentially brilliant ideas. (I’m wondering if there is some sort of catch to the taser idea: is it precise enough that you’re not giong to disable some innocent by-driver?) If there were enough demand, they could make special cop priuses with a bit more power.
In France, most cops are crammed into small peugeots and renaults. But with so many highway tolls, you can never run very far until you’re trapped….
I don’t think you’ll reap the benefits of the hybrid, since your engine will almost always be on to power lights, sirens, radios and computers. I think you’re better off with a diesel or a 4 cylinder Accord/Camry/Fusion.
Let’s see you try a PIT manuever in the Prius, or try to push a stranded vehicle out of an intersection.
That is assuming it is not in the garage for some electronic/computer glitch. Cops are notoriously hard on vehicles, which is why the Crown Vic still has over 80% of the market.
New vehicles come – a few are bought and found lacking, and agencies go back to the Crown Vic.
glenn126:
August 14th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
New vehicles come – a few are bought and found lacking, and agencies go back to the Crown Vic.
Don’t forget about the good ol’ Caprice, too.
Prius belts out 335 pound feet of torque (combined maximum of electric and gasoline) – far more than a Crown Vic V8. Just so you know! Put some heavy duty push-bars on a Prius – yeah, it’d push whatever car or light truck you’d need pushing out of an intersection, all right.
Torque doesn’t care from where it comes from. Kind of like a modernised version of what I used to say “back in the day” about my 1st car, a 1966 Rambler Ambassador, 327 cubic inches, 270 horsepower. The horsepower didn’t care whether they came from a small block Chevy or a mid-block Rambler – 270 = 270.
Pit maneuver? Who needs it if the car is stopped on the road (I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that someone was working on a taser type thing for cars just for the purpose of stopping perps).
We’ve got to start thinking outside the (crown vic) box.
Our cops can’t even afford to go out and do their duty in these gas-hogs due to budget constraints and high fuel prices (read what I wrote awhile ago about Michigan State Police having to cut down on their time in vehicles).
kestrel, your mentioning that the (strobe) lights, cop radio, etc would always be drawing were already taken into account. The Prius (gas) engine would cycle on and off. I “figured” that this would bring real-world cop MPG down to about 35ish, wheras for a Crown Vic it’d be closer to 10 to 12, as a guess.
It takes a LOT of gas to idle a big V8 constantly, vs cycling a highly efficient Atkinson cycle 1.5 litre four banger on and off.
Yep, a LOT of cop car time is idling. Prius would SHINE. (Literally….) Ha.
NICKNICK, do you seriously not know that you can still steer and stop without power assistance?
A Prius isn’t adequate for police work, IMHO, but 350 horsepower isn’t necessary either.
The company I work for uses Prii as security patrol units. The durability vs. the usual Rangers and Foci that usually get dressed up for patrol duty by contract companies is amazing. The light bar (which is usually on constantly) and the radios lower the mpg to Focus territory. Not too bad. These things spend less than half the time in the shop that our Foci do. I don’t particularly like Toyota but I’ve gotta give ’em points for a well made durable little car.
That being said, a security unit doesn’t recieve quite as much abuse as a police car. I can’t see the Prius taking it as well as a Crown Vic. We’ve had officers do pretty impressive damage to a Prius by curb checking them, small cars have a lower ground clearance. Also sheer mass is a factor in forcing a another vehicle of the road or holding together in a crash. Watch the crash test videos on consumer reports website. The ratings are pretty close, but note that the Prius goes skidding sideways about 15 feet while the Vic stays planted (not that I’d want to sit in either one of the cars for the side impact test).
While I respect the Prius as a good and durable vehicle I can’t see it as a police car.
I’d love to see the ‘car taser’ come into use. As far as concerns about it causing accidents: how could disabling a car’s engine at high speeds be any more catastrophic than blowing out a couple of tires at 95mph?
What about that company in Georgia developing a pupose built Police car, get them to dump a hybrid drive rather than V8. I think I remember reading that it is being developed for multiple powertrains, using Ford powerplants. Ford already have a hybrid in production they could make use of that.
I personally think every goverment worker should be driving a small, efficient, basic car to 150,000 miles since they aren’t using there own money. The Prius would be a good idea if I didn’t think it was too much money and too nice for my tax dollars to pay for.
IMO the big problem is that in most areas of the country US and local government agencies politically have to drive domestic vehicles. So they pretty much are stuck with a choice of the least undesirable vehicle for a particular job.
This is why so many Suburban’s and Tahoe’s, at least they are RWD or AWD , stay together for the most part and don’t catch fire all that often.
All this Prius love. Why do all the candidates for the Democratic party nomination drive Ford Escape or Mercury Mariner hybrids? The politics, silly.
Imagine the uproar if state and fed agencies started buying Japanese cars. By Japanese, I mean cars with a Japanese badge, regardless of where they’re built.
Does that mean they will be purchasing used American cars when the Big 2.8 finally go the way of the Do-Do bird. Or if they switch to all Chinese built cars will the government buy those since it’s an American name on the front. Maybe that’s a good idea to put politicians in Chinese built cars, we might get some good politicians after the current ones crash themselves right out of existance.
This generation Prius or any other hybrid won’t give much better fuel economy than an equivalent car. The reasoning: when cops are not moving, chances are they’re still running the air conditioning or heat which require the engine to be running.
Politics is right. Just ask any motorcycle cop who’s ridden both BMW and Harley-Davidson police bikes which they prefer. It’s almost unanimous: BMW. So what do you see in primary use for police departments?
Little matters of cost and pressure. In the former, H-D does a certain amount of subsidization on the purchase, er, lease price. The latter? A couple of years ago, Henrico Country (northern suburbs of Richmond) decided to look into a couple of BMW’s to add to the Harley fleet. At the country commissioners meeting, all the HOG members residing in Henrico Country (supported by outlying county members) showed up to voice their disapproval about buying foreign bikes.
The country still bought them. The police love them.
Even without going as far asa Prius, what about an Escape hybrid for some patrol duties? I figure that at least has to be comperable to the Impala in room and durability, while still delivering marginally better fuel economy.
The type of vehicle a cop needs depends I think on where they patrol. In the sleepy suburb I grew up in, just about anything would do, just go for the mileage. But the highway patrol and in the city where I live now, I’d still want a big sedan. Locally, a police officer had to stop a ‘charging’ cube van head on. For that kind of work, I’ll take the Crown Vic.
Glenn126: Even with tons of idling (the Prius gas engine would cycle on and off) I’d bet they could get 35 mpg US, vs what, 12 for Crown Vics?
Any car gets 0 mpg while idling.
That (obvious point which I’m sure you already knew) aside, idling uses a remarkably small amount of gas. I just took part in a test in which we idled a car until it ran dry. It took over 10 hours to burn 4 gallons of gas (it’s a 3.7L V6). I have to wonder if a hybrid actually uses more gas constantly re-starting the engine.