The Evolution of the Police Car

The first squad car hit the bad streets of Akron, Ohio, in 1899. The battery-powered buggy was designed by city mechanical engineer Frank Loomis and built by Collins Buggy Co. It was equipped with electric lights, gongs and a stretcher, and had a snaillike top speed of 16 mph and a feeble range of 30 miles before it needed to be recharged. The car's first assignment: to pick up a drunk at the junction of Main and Exchange streets.

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By 1909, there was a serious need for a more modern police car to supplement or replace bicycle and horse-mounted units in order to keep up with faster, motorized vehicles driven by offenders. Enter the Ford Model T, the only affordable choice. The early versions of the T were powered by a front-mounted 4-cylinder engine that developed 20 horsepower, propelling the big beast to a top speed of almost 45 mph. During this period, cars were purchased retail and then modified by police departments. Modifications were limited — rudimentary markings and a variety of lights were the only things that set most early police cars apart from regular cars.

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In 1919, Ford began producing a Model T police truck, developed in response to police requests for a secure vehicle that separated officers and prisoners. Generally painted black and known by the slang term "paddy wagon," police departments often used the cagelike transport to haul drunken partygoers to a holding cell.

Bing: Ford Model T History

In the 1920s, police departments started outfitting vehicles with two-way wireless radios as a way to save money. Radio-equipped cars eliminated the need for ineffectual telephone-based call boxes on street corners. In addition, a single officer could cover more territory than he could on foot or horseback and still stay in touch with the station house. The radio car also led to centralized communications systems, which allowed the police car to be used in coordinated covert attacks on crime.

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In the 1930s, in response to the growing popularity of the Thompson submachine gun among criminals, armor plating became popular on police cruisers. Between 1933 and 1940, Plymouth offered armor-plated vehicles for sale to police departments. The most famous was the Kansas City Hot Shot, a 1933 Plymouth purchased by the Kansas City Police Department after the deadly shootout known as the Kansas City Massacre. Plymouth delivered the basic cars for the conversion into police vehicles to suppliers such as Perfection Windshield or Evans Armored Car of Indianapolis, Federal Laboratories of Pittsburgh and Smart Safety Engineering of Detroit. Full armor plating added about 750 pounds to the weight of the vehicle.

Bing: Kansas City Massacre

In 1932, Ford introduced the flathead V8 engine in its Model B and changed the cat-and-mouse game forever. It developed 85 horsepower, more than three times the power of the Model T. Consequently, it was loved by both criminals and cops equally, a favorite of Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger as well as the police chasing them. The V8 would establish high-powered, fast vehicles as the cars of choice for police departments.

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After World War II, American automakers began bundling the special options most often ordered by police departments into a special police packages. Ford unveiled its police package in 1950, Chevrolet in 1955 and Dodge in 1956. These cars might have looked like their consumer counterparts, except for the fancy paint jobs and lights, but they were anything but ordinary. The sheet metal hid serious improvements to both performance and protection. Police cars became much tougher and more resilient than their regular street counterparts. In 1956, Chrysler's first official police package was offered on Dodge Coronets. A year later, Dodge offered a package with the 325 Hemi engine, with a variety of performance enhancements and 310 horsepower.

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Not much changed for the next 15 or so years. Then in the 1970s, law enforcement started using smaller vehicles to pursue offenders. The first widely used compact was the 1975 Chevrolet Nova Police Package. Some experts still call it the ultimate police car. It was powered by a 350-cubic-inch 4-barrel carbureted V8 engine that developed 155 horsepower. The original police versions were set up as pursuit vehicles. But the Nova soon became valued as a police patrol vehicle after the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department adopted it.

Bing Images: Classic Police Cars

Unfortunately, the end of the 1970s signaled a weak era for the police car. The oil crisis and stricter emissions regulations slowly pushed big engines out of regular, civilian cars and, consequently, out of the police force as well. By the early 1980s, big engines were nearly extinct and police departments turned to the likes of the Ford Fairmont and Plymouth Volare. Most police-specification vehicles were the same under the hood as taxicabs in use at the time.

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Since the 1990s, police cars have been placed into three categories. First, the police pursuit vehicle is the everyday patrol car of a police precinct. It is fully equipped to handle just about any situation, from regular traffic stops to high-speed chases and roadblocks. Second are the special service vehicles, mostly used by government agencies. Most of these are specially equipped SUVs. Finally, there are the special service packages, many of which are sports cars.

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After the Chevrolet Caprice was discontinued in 1996, Ford's Crown Victoria held a near monopoly on police cruisers in North America, primarily because its conventional rear-wheel drive, V8 power and body-on-frame construction were advantageous for police use. The Crown Victoria's body-on-frame construction allowed for inexpensive repairs after accidents without the need to straighten the chassis — an important benefit for a car frequently used for pursuit maneuvers, such as ramming a car to spin it out. Rear-wheel drive made the car easier to control than its front-wheel-drive rivals, and allowed it to better withstand hard driving over curbs and other obstacles found in urban environments. The Crown Vic came equipped with many heavy-duty parts, such as a beefed-up transmission and a 251-horsepower engine.

Bing Images: Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor

Carbon Motors of Connersville, Ind., is building the E7 police-car prototype. The E7 was designed from the ground up as a law-enforcement vehicle, with features such as rear-hinged doors for easier passenger ingress. Powered by a BMW 3.0-liter 300-horsepower turbodiesel engine producing a hefty 420 lb-ft of torque and impressive fuel economy of 30 mpg combined city/highway, it can accelerate from zero to 62 mph in 6.5 seconds, and on to a top speed of 155 mph.

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For nearly two decades, New York-based writer and editor Chuck Tannert has covered everything from automobiles to gadgets to travel. Before joining the MSN Autos team, Tannert served as senior automotive editor at Cargo and Popular Mechanics, and his work has appeared in many outlets, including Men's Fitness, Men's Journal, Penthouse, Popular Science and Wired.

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