# Police car styles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386 "2002-04-18T20:50:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/21 "2002-04-19T13:18:03Z")
My paranoid theory: by going to an all-white paint job, the police have effectively made EVERY white Crown Vic on the roads into a traffic-control device…I know I look twice before blowing by a little old lady looking up through the steering-wheel spokes of her land yacht… ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/22 "2002-04-19T16:39:23Z")
We have B&W’s here, along with everything else including black, light blue, dark blue, white, white and red, brown, and silver, and those are just the marked cars that I’m aware of. When it comes to unmarked traffic cruisers, there are even more colors and with the variety of vehicles they use, the combinations are endless. Suburbans, Cherokees, Explorers, Jimmys, Crown Vics, Caprices, Malibus, Impalas, Thunderbirds, Tauruses, Camaros, Volvos and once I even saw a Chevy pickup that had someone pulled over, so I’m sure there are more. Out here, it seems like anything above a compact can be a cop car, and there are more civilians out here with white Crown Vics with spotlights on the doors than I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve gotten to where I ignore the vehicle and look for the mini strobe lights they all use on the front of the side and rearview mirrors or around the edge of the rear window, but they are so small that by the time you see em, they are about to be turned on. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/23 "2002-04-19T23:19:53Z")
**Telemark** asked me; > [@](#): > > Um, mangeorge doesn’t Aspen count? 😃 😃 Well, um, why don’t we just leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/24 "2002-04-20T00:28:00Z")
Between 1930 and the early 1970s, New York City police cars were black and green, usually with a white top. Here’s a [picture](http://www.nycpolicemuseum.org/images/vehicles/1972rmp.gif). Ever since the 1970s they have been white and blue. Here’s a [picture of a model](http://www.collect-corner.net/toppag13.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![funkynige](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@funkynige](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funkynige)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/25 "2002-04-20T00:49:01Z")
In the UK we mainly have the ‘Jam Sandwich’ - white with a red stripe down the side, though now they are putting illuminous yellow all over them to make them more visible (except when they’re behind you in the dark, grrr). Also there are ‘special’ cars like [these](http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/frames.htm) . Bear in mind all UK cop cars now have a minimum of 2 litre engines (sorry, no idea what that is in cubic inches) and the Volvo T50 that stopped my mate had a 4.3 litre engine in!(we found out by asking the copper). ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/26 "2002-04-20T02:00:16Z")
my city uses crown vics which have navy blue paint with white/yellow/light blue “accent” stickers with the city logo. they also use ford expeditions. you go to the city south of us and they use crown vics that are silver with blue/white stickers. i haven’t seen anything other than a car there, though. you go to the city my university’s in and they use (gasp!) \*\* chevy impalas \*\* that are black with dark yellow and red stickers. they also use… hmm… i think they used to use suburbans, and now they use… yukons (i _think_). ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/27 "2002-04-20T08:28:43Z")
Sheriffs’ cars in Spokane are white + dark green. City police cars are white with black lettering, and undercover cars are usually maroon. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386/28 "2002-04-21T07:06:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mangeorge \* > \*\*We have about five different police forces here in Berkeley, CA. All use different color schemes. But the regular BPD uses B&W, I think. > We also have UC cops, Bart cops, Alameda Co. sheriff, some CHP, and one other I can’t think of right now. > I read somewhere (I know, I know) that obvious markings on patrol cars increase traffic safety stats. But ticket revinue goes down. Who knows. > Side question; > Do any cops, in any city, use foreign cars? > Peace, > mangeorge \*\* I recall an article in an automobile magazine a few years back about a state police agency using the Mazda 626. But this is only _arguably_ the police using an import, given that these vehicles were part of a Ford / Mazda partnership that also produced the Ford Probe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-car-styles/104386.md?page=1)