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AOL’s Translogic [via PopSci] takes a look at the LAPD’s brand-spankety new Chevy Caprice PPV, the born-again Pontiac G8 that you can’t buy at a dealership. But rather than looking at the Caprice’s cop car-creaming performance (as did the Michigan State Police), this report focuses on the LAPD’s high-tech toys… which could just make the Caprice’s V8, rear-drive abilities less necessary than ever. Still, between the Holden-powered, rear-drive performance, the footprint-spying night vision camera and the automatic license plate recognition system, the Caprice PPV will probably make you think twice about speeding the next time you’re visiting the City of Angels.
10 Comments on “FLIR, License Plate Recognition, and Small Block, Oh My!...”
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Screw the technology. I want to know why this is only being offered to the police?
The car itself is on sale all over the planet all world supply of Chevs are these built in OZ it is Chevy powered, GM ships the power trains to Australia and Holden builds a proper car around them real cars cant be made in NA and havent been since 69, Ford build an equivalent car in the Falcon but refuse to export it except to NZ but this site drools over crap like Crown Vics if you want cars like these harrass GM and Ford untill they relent and import or build decent RWD cars stop buying garbage like Tauri.
If I recall, the current Falcon can’t be made LHD due to its platform engineering and Ford would never get back the money spent re-engineering it for LHD. Your best hope is to wait and see if Ford decides to make an all-new Falcon that both sides of the road can enjoy.
I also wonder if, to keep these vehicles from falling in the hands of civilians, GM will buy back the Caprices at the end of their service life or negotiate some clause in the contract dictating that LEOs must crush or otherwise dismantle these cars after they’re used up. Sounds unorthodox, but does GM really want to see these ex-cop Caprices in civilian hands, especially on the off chance they decide to offer a civvie version some time down the road?
Ditch the guy in the yellow shoes, he is truly painful to watch.
I’ll be on the lookout for these when we’re in L.A. this fall!
Well… I don’t know if LAPD is going to catch more ‘bad guys’ with this car, but they’ll probably be able to type 120 words a minute by the end of the year. That suspect compartment, or whatever they call it doesn’t look like it’s big enough for a Compton Crip. I can see one of the Priu Street boys busting up all that plastic-balistic or not. I’ve always wondered why most patrol cars don’t have a HUD as standard equipment, which would then super-impose infra-red imaging on part of the windshield; to me this would be a good safety item-especially in areas prone to fog. Seems to me they had such a system on Cadillacs a few years ago. The FlIR will probably pay for itself in apprensions.
Wonder if any departments who still trade cars a silly low mileages will be using these? (IIRC San Antonio used to ditch their cop cars at the 60,000 mile mark, but that was back in the 1990s. It made for some clean cop cars for sale.)
The license plate reading is pretty cool.
That’s already available in (bulky) dual camera form mounted on the decklid of a squad car. Here’s some Georgian Impala with the camera pods…
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/tools/shared/mediahub/05/20/01/slideshow_1012054_licensereader.0322_e.jpg
Local to me, both Pinellas Sheriff’s Office and Clearwater PD have had these on a handful of cars for a number of years (I remember first seeing them on a PCSO Intrepid!) and they do work, but apparently cost $20k per car.
Why are the front wheels so much larger than the rear ones? Heh heh.