But you know what? You can not get into that back seat unless you are in trouble. I called in a dead body out in the desert, and when the coppers showed up, would not let me in the car to lead them to it. I had to drive my Jeep while they followed me. That was weird.
I had one of those! The transmission went out and I traded it for a toaster. The car, not the transmission.
It was a really nice toaster.
My first assigned cruiser was a 74 something or another. I think a Plymouth Fury. Used so I did not get a new one until some time later. I felt like I was driving a ship and it drove like one.
Of course, if they wanted a good handling car in the 60s they coulda driven late model Corvairs! Rear engine plus independent rear suspension!
Screw Nader.
Post-1965. Prior to that was swing arm, which actually contributed to the Corvair’s handling issues. (Unsafe At Any Speed came out in 1965) Beetles also had swing arm, but somehow didn’t have a rollover problem. Probably because they couldn’t go over 50. 
While in general you are correct, note that NASCAR was doing 150-200 mph in the 70s with drum brakes and bias ply tires. On was was basically a 1966 Chevy truck suspension (albeit with extra shocks). And those cars in the old cop show chases were actually driving, actually making those maneuvers. It wasn’t cgi. Especially Bullitt.
LM started in 65.
And I thought we’d established here that “Unsafe” was total BS.
Well, “We” didn’t, at least.
The fact that Chevy wanted you to have drastically different air pressures in the tires to counter the ill handling says that the book has some truth.
But Corvairs are no more likely to roll in a turn than Pintos are to explode.
And besides there was more to UAAS than the Corvair, and a lot of that was correct.
Probably an individual department policy.
When I was in IT many of my customers were police agencies. I’ve lost count of the number of times 4 of us went to lunch in a squad leaving from one police HQ or another.
At first it felt weird to be seen riding in the back of a marked police car, with the folks outside wondering what heinous thing I’d done to earn this ride. Then I realized this never happened in the county I lived in, and this was before cams became ubiquitous in phones, so random people seeing some random schmoe in the back of a cop car wasn’t recorded for posterity.
But we sometimes did get a look when we got to the eatery & the cops in front got out, opened the back doors to let us out, and we all walked into the restaurant together yakking.
He could catch this.
1959 Ford Anglia 105E: 50HP, top speed 74mph, 0-60 26.9 seconds.
As used in TV cop show ‘Heartbeat’ set in the 1960s.
Would you want a possible murderer in your backseat? How do they know how that body got there?
Maybe it was a local policy. I have given people rides in the back seat often. It’s not a daily event but not unusual. The back seats of modern police cars are not very roomy and not built for comfort. Even the SUVs have very little leg room if they have cages.
By “We” I meant a discussion on these boards. Yeah, read UUAS, as well as considerable other literature on the subject, drove and worked on several Corvairs… But shouldn’t hijack a thread about poor handling old cop cars.
Other little tropes…not only do people not pull over for police…they seem to be actively trying to impede them. Then on top of that, the police will blast into traffic, through red lights without slowing, through stop signs…made all the worse because of their poor handling vehicles, and that no one wears a seat belt.
The movie “First Blood” had a (fishtail-tastic) chase scene where a police car slid into a ditch and (inadvertently!) rolled onto its roof. They thought it was cool, so they left that scene in the final film.
I concur. I was going to say, that earlier 16.3 ET mentioned could only be either severely traction limited, or the car being so configured in a way deleterious in performance: say, a “loaded” car, especially a convertable with an auto trans ( especially if it were a 2=speed powerglide ) and a “tall” rear axle ratio. Trap speeds would be a better indicator of how well the car pulls, all the more so when we couple that with today’s hugely superior tires.
Anyway, a more apples vs apples comparison would be something like a modern Dodge Charger police car of today vs the cruisers of the 60s and 70s…powertrain and handling wise. Taking it to the next level, applying that to today’s performance cars. Not only do they obviously best the sedans and SUVs, but earlier classic muscle as well, and with a level f refinement that, depending on how one is feeling that day, is either refreshing or dull. Hell, the most bare bones base 4 cylinder ( albeit turbocharged ) Camaro you can buy today is still capable of an ET of 14 flat at 99. Get into V6 territory and you’re mid 13s. Get into LS V8 territory and you’re in the low 12s.
Modern cars are really just crazy. Over the past 5 years or so I drove a GTI - not crazy fast, but quick. Pretty immediately I learned I could get my lunch handed to me by freaking Malibus and pickups. And don’t even mention electrics. There is SO much power out there on the roads these days.
How did people in the 70s get any work done when every single car on the road was screeching everytime it made a 5 mph turn.
All the smog in the air back then deadened the sound nicely. 
And leaded smog at that! Very good for soundproofing.
Because unlike most cars today, the muffler is not removed or cuts out when the driver stomps on it.
I once had a car, I don’t know what was wrong…but when I left for work, it was emitting a James Bond-like white smoke cloud. I passed a cop on a side street, and:
I don’t actually know if he pulled behind me to pull me over, cause thats how thick the smoke was, but I pulled into an alley, and I like to think that (like James Bond) I lost him. Its entirely possible.
The same car back-fired so badly, I could hear my roommate borrowing the thing a good mile away.
“Oh listen honey, I think I hear Don downtown”