Here’s some information about our US police car “packages”.
Tell us about your police cars.
I’ve seen the cops in Aspen, CO driving Saabs before…
That link just put up about a dozen pop-up ads on my screen!
I think in Hawaii cops drive their personal vehicles. Can’t answer for non-U.S. countries. Must have info. on their net sites. I hate pop up ads so I won’t open above link.
Well, here in Canada the typical RCMP/City police car is going to be the same as the US, generally a Crown Vic.
You see the odd Camaro still doing Interceptor duty.
I have seen newer Malibu’s and Intrepids being used more and more, in addition to a Jeep Cherokee. I also saw in Kelowna a new VW Bug (probably just for show) and in Pentiction a new Subaru WRX Wagon.
The city I live in bought a Neon to do Ghost car duty for its bylaw enforcement, which can also give out traffic tickets. Talk about a perfect Ghost Car.
My neighbors (both cops) told me that in Calgary they use all sorts of vehicles for Photo radar hosts. From the usual mini-van, to beaten up old pick up trucks and Motorhomes (!!!).
Is a “ghost car” an unmarked police car?
New South Wales Police Vehicles.
The typical police car is a (General Motors) Holden Commodore, which is a large, six-cylinder, rear-wheel drive sedan. The police versions are beefed up a lot more than the standard Commodore.
Most Australian jurisdictions use mainly Holden (a subsidiary of General Motors) Commodores and Ford Falcons. Both are large rear wheel drive 6 or 8 cylinder sedans. As an aside, Holden is going to start exporting their Police Special to the US.
There’s also a smattering of Subaru WRXs, and Subaru Forresters. In rural areas there’s a fair number of large 4WDs, usually Toyota LandCruisers from memory.
Damn, TLD. You must start work same time as me!
Police vehicles in Paris (and France in general) usually are remarkably meek-looking small Citroen, Peugeot, and Renault sedans, augmented by vans which transport teams of beat cops to their patrol areas.
Bingo. Sorry, I just assumed it was a common term. Learn something new every day!
Last time I was in Moscow I had the most odd sensation, Standing on the curb, in view of St Basil’s and the cop car going by was a crown vic…
very disturbing to me for some reason.
The police in Japan mostly uses small or mid-size Japanese sedans. The Toyota Crown and Nissan Cedric are popular choices. This Nissan Skyline GT-R is as cool as Japanese police cars get. Smaller police cars are also common, like this Nissan March (Micra) or even smaller cars like the Daihatsu Mira. I hear there are some Toyota Prius hybrid cars used by the police, though I haven’t seen them myself.
Here’s a good page with more photos:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/MotorCity-Circuit/4415/pato.html
Swedish police primarily use Volvos and Saabs (big surprise there right?). There are also vans and a few jeep/SUV type vehicles which I do not know the brand of.
I’ve heard that the police in Mexico use reconditioned UPS trucks as paddywagons, and I saw on one of those Wildest Police Videoes shows where in Brazil, IIRC, they used something like a VW Golf hatchback as police cars and they would stuff the arrested person into the hatch instead of using a bigger car to haul him/her to the station!
Well, in Germany they use a variety of cars. In southern Germany, most of the cop cars I saw were Audi A6s. Stuttgart even has two police Porsches. Although one is only used for official event (and was a gift from Porsche) and the other one is an older model, 1989 or something. That one still is used occassionally for patrol. I got a picture of them somewhere around here. If anyone is really interested, I can scan it in when I have some time.
Anyhow, Germany used to have a fleet of police Porsches back in the 60s or 70s (or so the cops told me), but they’re actually not terribly good police vehicles. They have no space, and the speed advantage is pretty much useless these days.
The police here in Hungary drive some sort of Opel. I’ve never really paid much attention to what model it is. It’s fairly non-descript.
Me? I miss the big boxy Chevy Caprices the Chicago police drove in the 80s. Now that’s what a cop car should look like. Not like the curvy Caprices and Fords that replaced them.