What ever happened to the old Black and Whites? Well, not even so much that….as what ever happened to all the police in a department having cars with the same paint job.
When I was a youth I remember the Sheriff department ALL HAD Purple Impala’s as squad cars for a long time. Then they all went to brown Impalas. The city cops followed suit in having all their squads be light blue Crown Victorias,
Now when I drive around I see about 10 different color schemes and half a dozen different models of vehicles being used by these same departments.
My question is…Why did this happen? I understand the need for undercover cars to be different but I am talking about squads. Shouldn’t the squads be instantly recognizable by department?
I mean cops in the same department have 3 different paint schemes on their cars and they don’t all drive the same models. There is no consistency to allow you to differentiate them by department. At least aorund here that is.
Well, here in my suburb, I’ve seen the traditional police cruiser (I think it’s some Ford Taurus looking thing), the occassional SUV and I know from sight that there’s at least one Trans Am (Camaro, Firebird… some type of car like that) wandering the streets which has lights on top and the logo on the side, just like any police car. Sort of an odd sight. There might be other types out there, but I haven’t noticed them (nor been on the lookout for them). Anyway, my guess is that mixing things up a bit gives you more flexibility in your response and allows the police to tailor the vechile to the need a little better (there’s times when the extra power and capacity of the SUV would be useful, but when you’re in a high speed chase you bust out the Trans Am). Also, by making some cars less traditional you can catch more people speeding, blowing red lights etc who would have noticed a squad car and slowed down just for you for the next 5 minutes or until you turn the corner.
Around Chicago most police cars are Crown Victorias with some Taurus’s thrown in.
The State Troopers generally have Crown Vics but they also have Mustangs, Camaros, and a few other unmarked cars for busting speeders. I had a friend racing a Camaro down the highway. After exchanging leads a few times she pulls up next to the Camaro and looks at the driver. He smiled at her and reached into the seat next to him and put on a Trooper hat. OOOPS! (After pulling her over he actually let her go…something about racing her for awhile might be construed as entrapment…besides, they both thought it was kinda funny).
Personally I don’y think ANY regular people should be allowed to buy Crown Vics. Can’t tell you how many times I nearly piss myself when going 80 and see a Crown Vic on my ass only to have it be an 80 year-old guy with his granddaughter.
Don’t forget that government agencies usually buy things by awarding contracts to the lowest bidder.
If a police department buys 12 cars one year from the lowest bidder-- say a local auto dealer, and then has to buy 5 more a year or two later (because some of the original 12 have been totalled or broken down), a different dealer may be the low bidder on the second contract, and may fulfill it with a different model of car. The police department doesn’t really care what model is supplied, so long as it meets the specifications in the contract.
As for paint jobs, I don’t ever recall seeing two identical vehicles from the same department and unit bearing different paint schemes. Obviously, the canine unit of a department might have a different paint scheme on its vehicles than an ordinary patrol car would, and the parking violations bureau might have a completely different look for any number of reasons. But I’ve never seen a force where two otherwise identical patrol cars had two different paint schemes.
Exactly my point. I tell you it is crazy to me and believe me we are not talking about a city police force or County Sheriff department that is big enough to be so inconsistent.
Very interesting to hear that this may be a local phenomenon.
Here in Houston, the city police cars were blue [with some stripes, logos, etc.] There were a couple shades of blue.
There was an article in the paper about how the car manufacturer decided to drop blue as a factory color for that model car. The department was considering white or black, both factory standard colors. They picked white for new cars.
So cost is a factor. They use a standard factory color as the base color. That is obviously cheaper than re-painting a car.
It could also be that some cars are newer than others. The police force may be opting for a new look, but doesn’t want to pay to replace its older cars.
As starfish noted, Houston Police Department cars were a light city blue, then they switched to a darker blue (which I gather was o.e.m. paint) and they’ve recently switched to white. Some of all of the above are on the streets now. The blue cars are not marked identically, some have badges and others have stripes. Then we have Metro Police, who are regular cops, but they supposedly concentrate on traffic enforcement; their cars are white with blue and red stripes.
HPD is currently buying Crown Vics, but there’s quite a few Caprice patrol units about. They also have some marked Luminas and Suburbans and Camaros.
And we have several constable precincts and their patrol cars have paint schemes unique to their precinct. Also, various neighborhood associations buy or lease cars and paint’em up however they feel (my neighborhood has two Saturn’s painted up sort of like Metro cars) and label them POLICE because they only hire real cops for patrol duty.
We have the county sheriff’s cars, which were brown, I’m not sure how they dress these days. DPS troopers still drive black and whites. All the school districts have their own police units as well.
I’m sure I’ve left someone out, but the point is there are many different configurations that might serve up a peace officer around here. I’ve tried to include only those flavors that might actually pull someone over.
In New York City, where I am a cop, we used to have blue and whites, with blue being the predominant color. But about 4 years ago, the city decided to save 600 bucks a car, and get them as-is from the factory in white and then label them in blue. This is ugly and makes us look like a suburban department. (Nothing against you guys…)
So you’ve got blue and white cars that have cops in them.
You’ve got dark blue, which is our auxiliary cops, like volunteers without guns. You’ve got light blue for the traffic cops. Then the sherrif’s have their cars, and the marshalls have their cars. The Postal Police have their cars, and the Federal Protective Service has theirs. There are many many police agencies operating in NYC, but all NYPD vehicles that are marked have our emblem and the letters NYPD on them.
In smaller departments, with different paint jobs, usually it’s because they are redoing their look and they’re doing it a few cars at a time. Hope this helps sled…
Birmingham is one of those unfortunate cities that is hemmed in all around by a bevy of incorporated suburbs - all with their own police force. On top of that, there seems to be some sort of un-upmanship in the paint scheme styling. I think Homewood touched it off when they went to Thunderbirds in the mid 80’s. Since then it seems like every couple of years a new shipment of cars come in, and every time there’s a new car to be painted, they reinvent the wheel with the painting scheme. They seem to really like replacing insignia with bold, slanted lettering these days. Then you have all the different vehicles. Big SUV’s for special task forces and D.A.R.E units in stylish black. Meanwhile, nobody is throwing away the old Crown Vic’s either, which in the city of Birmingham are a distinctive metallic blue even though they switched new cars to white years and years ago. I haven’t seen many recently, but I used to see confiscated cars used as police vehicles. That might explain the camaro’s and such. I distinctly remember seeing a Jaguar with the City of Mobile police paint job and the words ‘confiscated from drug dealers’ written in peppy script on the rear quarter panels.