Talk:Police car

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In the list of models that are used as police cars, each one is labeled "PPV" or "SSV". What do those stand for and what do they mean? 72.29.73.231 19:39, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Police package vehicle and special sevice vehicle. PPV's are more heavily modified for police use and are the more common police vehicles. SSV's are modified to be heavy duty, but not completely ready to use as a police car. They usually need some other addition. These are comprised of the less common police vehicles such as SUV's and sports cars. --Aqua 18:27, May 3, 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Comparisons

It may be important to make comparisons between the capabilities of the police car, Nascar cars, and exotic sports cars that are built for speed. Which cars of those three groups will come out on top if put to a race?

- Police cars are pretty much slightly modified versions of civilian street cars strictly for the purpose of policing, and aren't necessarily built for the purpose of speed (with the exception of course of various sport cars used as police vehicles), more so then for durability, safety and heavy duty work (long mileage, harsh road conditions, etc). In fact certain police vehicles such as the FWD Impala would hardly fit the description of "high-performance". So to answer that, a police packaged vehicle would lose in a race to the other two. In fact it would lose to high performance sports cars that aren't really considered exotics either. So there is really no fair comparison there to be honest, and definitely not to a Nascar (which is purely a racebred track car)!

The dodge charger is TMK the fastest widely used police car in america, and has a max speed of around 130mph. Performance cars and some sports cars can out run that if tuned properly. Having said that, its hard to get away from the police cause they box you in and stuff, or use speed strips or other tire puncture devices. 172.164.16.91 (talk) 04:02, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] North American Police Cars Black and White?

blue and or white are verry common Police Vehicle colours. Dudtz 8/25/05 1:28 PM EST

Markings vary by state and city in the United States. Sometimes a mandate that the car be unmarked when used for personal driving may exist, as in Connecticut. State Police there may be seen driving nearly plain Crown Victoria police cars. California Highway patrol and Los Angeles Police department cars are known for being black and white. Other states use specific schemes. Minnesota is a good specific example where state legislation governs police car colors (Minnesota Statutes 169.98 Subdivision 1. Colors and markings.) [1]

Colors and markings. (a) Except as provided in subdivisions 2 and 2a, all motor vehicles which are primarily used in the enforcement of highway traffic rules by the State Patrol or for general uniform patrol assignment by any municipal police department or other law enforcement agency, except conservation officers, shall have uniform colors and markings as provided in this subdivision. Motor vehicles of: (1) municipal police departments, including the University of Minnesota Police Department and park police units, shall be predominantly blue, brown, green, black, or white; (2) the State Patrol shall be predominantly maroon; and (3) the county sheriff's office shall be predominantly brown or white. (b) The identity of the governmental unit operating the vehicle shall be displayed on both front door panels and on the rear of the vehicle. The identity may be in the form of a shield or emblem, or may be the word "police," "sheriff," or the words "State Patrol" or "conservation officer," as appropriate, with letters not less than 2-1/2 inches high, one-inch wide and of a three-eighths inch brush stroke. The identity shall be of a color contrasting with the background color so that the motor vehicle is easily identifiable as belonging to a specific type of law enforcement agency. Each vehicle shall be marked with its own identifying number on the rear of the vehicle. The number shall be printed in the same size and color required pursuant to this subdivision for identifying words which may be displayed on the vehicle.

My understanding is that black just recently made a comeback in 2004 in Minnesota. Group29 21:26, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Copied this from the article: To improve visibility, Toronto police cars were painted bright yellow. This colour scheme lasted from 1969 to 1986. It was then replaced by a more conventional white with a blue and red accent stripe running the length of the vehicle on either side. Not because it was bad, but it would be possible to list an example of every single agency in North America. Eventually there may be a Police car wiki unto itself with the list. This information would be valuable in an article for the Toronto Police Service. Group29 21:43, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The wording may not have been adequate, but the intent was to indicate one particularly unusual choice of colours. After all, in North America, one usually identifies yellow with cabs, not police cars. Denis 06:09, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Police cars in Greece

In the article under section 'Markings and paint schemes' it says that Greek police cars are black and white. This isn't a fact anymore. It used to be like that 10-20 years ago. Nowadays, modern police cars are white with blue "reflective" (or fluorescent as the article mentions) strips. Since I am not that familiar with changing the content of articles, I would be grateful if someone more experienced than me makes the appropriate changes.

Thanks for your time, George

--87.203.226.128 21:22, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

I've made the appropriate changes myself. Feel free to adjust them :-) 87.203.175.54 19:42, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photographing police cars in France?

My father told me that it is illegal to photograph police cars in France. Is this true? JIP | Talk 16:19, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hybrid Police Car

I wonder if any car company is thinking about producing a hybrid PPV? C2CFAN 23:02, 19 August 2006

[edit] Police cars in Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Italy and Sweden

Peterwagen is just another oldfashioned word for patrolcars; there is no separate meaning in it, as the article suggests. I live in North Rhine-Westphalia, the biggest state in Germany (about 17 million citizens), where Ford (Cologne) and Opel (Bochum) have their great factories. So the police force of this state preferes Ford and Opel, but it depends on the prices. Some years ago, the police of North Rhine-Westphalia had Volkswagen cars for Ford had been to expensive. The Bereitschaftspolizei (rapid reaction units of the police forc)e of North Rhine-Westphalia uses vans of Mercedes-Benz, which are produced in Düsseldorf and Volkswagen, which are manufactured outside Northrhine-Westphalia in Hannover. In France, patrolcars are usually monochrome darkblue, usually of Renault and Peugeot. In Belgium, gendarmerie uses white patrolcars with red markings. So does the Austrian police. Recently, Austrian police changes the colour of their patrolcars into silver with blue marking. In both countries I noticed only Volkswagen, but that might be accidentally. Volkswagen has a great plant in Brussels. The rapid reaction units of Belgian police force use dark blue lorries of Renault and IVECO. In Italy, the Carabinieri drive traditionally Alfa-Romeo cars (today they use Fiat cars too) in monochrome extreme dark blue with white roofs. The Polizia di Stato, the other police force in Italy has predominantly Fiat cars in monchrome light blue with white roofs. In Sweden, police use Saab cars too as patrolcars. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rosa Lux (talk • contribs) 19:25, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

Belgium abolished its Gendarmerie in 2001. As a rule, gendarmerie cars had been white, with a bright red/signal orange stripe running the length of the vehicle, and police cars white with a blue stripe. Service vehicles, Land Rovers, etc were dark blue. Motorcycles were light blue in the sixties, and white in the seventies. Federal and local police now use white vehicles, with very distincive markings on the front left and rear right, in keeping with the new corporate identity. Federal police can be recognised by markings which include red stripes, and local police by markings including royal blue stripes. Denis 06:33, 9 February 2007 (UTC)


In Germany green is not the color of the old Police cars. Some states have got green, others blue cars. For example most bavarian cars are green BMW 3 Series. The Difference between the old and the new cars is another thing: Old: White/Green or White Blue - New: Grey/Green or Grey/Blue —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.11.23.252 (talk) 18:32, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Police Vehicle Disambiguation

Currently Police Vehicle redirects here. Definition of vehicle: a conveyance that transports people or objects. It makes sense that said article should be a disambiguation page for all police vehicles, rather than going straight to cars. I am in the process of making this change now. - Bennyboyz3000 03:00, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New Structure

As you can see i've brought a new structure to this article, giving good worldwide applicable information first, then by country. The country info still needs tidying up a bit. My thought is that each country should probably either have its own "Police cars in xxx" page, or where that would be a stub, make it part of "Police in xxx". Any thoughts? Owain.davies 20:43, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

I think this is excellent. The sections can then be trimmed down to smaller amounts and you can refer to the "main" for more detail. Group29 16:10, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
Wow, i thought everyone was ignoring this. If nobody else objects this week (and to be fair you've had three months...) i'll split the article down on the weekend Owain.davies 18:16, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

A little later than i thought cos i've been busy, but now Done!. Owain.davies 17:24, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Incidentally, i have moved all the content out, but i don't see a problem with having a one or two sentence summary of each as part of the bullet, i just don't have that sort of time! Owain.davies 17:25, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Functional Types

This entire section is based on Original Research and does not cite a single source whatsoever. Batman2005 20:38, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Wrong i'm afraid. It does not introduce any new theory, original idea, new terms, new definition of existing terms, new argument, analysis of facts or neologisms (the terms laid down at WP:NOR. If you'd have said just that it wasn't cited, then that's fair enough, some citations would be good - but citations in WP are only essential when the material is likely to be challenged (WP:CITE).
However, i fully agree that citations are desirable throughout wikipedia, and this is on my to do list for this particular page. I think tagging it as Original research was both premature and unhelpful. If you'd like, there are loads of web references which you could start gathering for it....
Regards, Owain.davies 11:18, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
Not wrong i'm afraid, in fact...i'm exactly right. There are MULTIPLE instances of Original Research in the section. The first, which I deleted as wholly untrue, is that K9 cars are usually station wagons...I found absolutely no sources for that...ergo, original research. Additionally, a quick google image search for "K9 Police Cars" shows a ratio of about 50:1 crown victoria/sedan model cars vs station wagons. Second, there are no sources for all the claims that a certain type of car is generally designed for speed or that a certain type of car has more firearms in it, etc, etc, etc. ALL original research.
  • "Patrol Car" - used to replace walking the beat. - According to whom? What sources do we have for this? If none...original research.
  • "Response car" - A response car is similar to a patrol car, but is likely to be of a higher specification, capable of faster speeds and will certainly be fitted with audible and visual warnings. These cars are (almost) only ever used to respond to emergency incidents, so are designed to travel fast, and may carry specialist equipment (such as large firearms) - Again, where do we get this information? What published material do we find which outlines the differences between a normal police vehicle and this specialized "response car." I've looked high and low through the internet and the ONLY mention of "response car" are wikipedia or mirror articles.
I could go on and on and on about this horribly written and researched section. But I won't because I don't have that kind of time. Suffice to say that the section contains numerous instances of grotesque original research and MANY unverified claims. I'm willing to put some work into it, but to argue that it does not contain original research is borderline ridiculous. Batman2005 20:44, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
I have to disagree that there is original research - simply not true. It may be unreferenced, but I am working on that now. You have a very US centric view of the world (evidenced by the fact you searched for K9 vehicles, a term used mostly in the US, which will return, surprisingly, american cars! In Europe, and most other places where i've seen them, there is a tendency towards the use of station wagons or car based vans like the Opel Zafira - the world does not end at the Atlantic ocean.
The chances are quite a few of these references will be from police manuals (blackstone's for instance) and hence without a web reference for you to easily check, but that's just the way it is. I will get to the references, but there is an assumption that the info presented is liekly to be challenged. I had, wrongly as it transpires, assumed that the information was self evident. Reagrds Owain.davies 22:31, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
First off, you have absolutely no idea what kind of a centric view I have on the world, I've lived in the United States for less than half of my life, the rest of it was spent living in 7 different European countries and one middle eastern one. So I think i've got a pretty broad sense of the world. Secondly, you might as well change the title of the section to "Functional Types of European Police Cars" as nearly every source you've provided has been about European only policing. Here, where I live in the United States now, you'll NEVER hear the term "Response Car" or many of the other terms listed which are clearly European only. You might as well indicate that sometimes up to 6 officers will ride in a van..since that's the case in Saudi Arabia when I lived there, or how about how in Amsterdam the police have a seat on the tram....that's a separate police vehicle right? I agree that this is not simply an American article, however, when all/most of the sources are European, it makes it difficult to justify NOT specifically stating that the different types of vehicles listed are for the most part, referring to European policing. Batman2005 00:21, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
You may well have lived abroad, but your words thus far don't appear particularly broad minded, and that's all I can judge you on, but i'm happy to assume good faith. I have added european and especially UK references, as these are the ones I know about, but feel to add counterbalancing US examples. There is clearly a section for 'multi-purpose' police car, which probably fits the description of the vehicles of many forces, but the reason it is fourth in the list is because it fulfils the nature of all three of the preceeding points, and many police forces worldwide do clearly delineate between them. As for having heard of it, looking at your own page, you don't appear to have a law enforcement background, and as such, i wouldn't expect that you would know the difference between the types of car - it's unlikely that if you stopped a person in a street in the UK and asked them that they would know that there are four different types of police car they might see - they wouldn't know 'response car', but this is an encyclopaedia, and as such, should contain a reasonable amount of detail. As such, i think the list is fair and balanced, if still in need of some more references. As for the other items, this is an article about police cars, not police vehicles. I hope this answers your concerns on it, and i will keep looking for references for it. Regards, Owain.davies 16:46, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Again, you're wrong. I am a police officer for quite some time now, I just don't go around advertising that fact to the world. As such, I can assure you that the "functional types" of police cars you have listed here, DO NOT, for the most part...happen here in the United States. There's no separation between a car used to patrol and a car used to respond to scenes. There are some "traffic cars" which are typically a sedan which is not intended for police use, but gets used to blend into traffic (Ford Five Hundred or Ford Taurus for instance). I state again, that all the sources you are using are European, which to me means you might as well concede that the article is only for european functional types of police cars, and not what you would see in North America, likely South America, Africa, etc. You appear to have a European centric version of the world....the world doesn't end at the borders of the european union you know. Batman2005 18:23, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Touché. Good, then you can put a citation and more information against multi-purpose car given that this is predominant in the US, but i don't think that makes the other types any less encyclopaedic - just because one country doesn't have them, doesn't mean they don't exist in multiple other instances - therefore worthy of inclusion. As for traffic cars, I know for a fact that there are some marked traffic cars operating in the US, because i've chatted to a cop who worked one, and the highway patrol surely qualify if nobody else. So, if you're happy, then we can expand the multi-purpose part, and try and find more citations for the other parts. Sound agreeable? Owain.davies 18:40, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm perfectly happy with that, I took agree that there are "traffic" cars that are marked, in fact...I spend the first year of my career working in a "traffic only" capacity. The problem that we'll no doubt run into, is that a "traffic car" is typically no different than a "patrol car." I had no extra equipment in mine, nor did I not have any that a patrol officer had in theirs. Basically it was "ok, your job is traffic enforcement, here is your car." Whereas in Europe you may have traffic cops who NEVER respond to anything BUT traffic issues. Batman2005 23:03, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Policemg 05.jpg

Image:Policemg 05.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot 01:50, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Call for a universal specification for police cars

to make sure it's fit enough to do the job, like car chasing on a road.

Is there a point to this comment? Am i missing it? Owain.davies 16:59, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, can a 1.3 L car catch up a 2.6 L one?

The specification could include ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 compliance, such as airbags, engine capacity, and remote control mirrors etc). Have a look at the topic of Emergency vehicle

Wikipedia is not the place to call for new standards to be adopted, but rather a place to record what has already happened, therefore this does not seem notable or relevant. Also, when writing on talk pages, please sign your comment with four tildes - ~~~~ so we know who is making the comment. Thanks Owain.davies 19:02, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Equipment

FWIW, wheels aren't listed. I once had a 1989 Dodge Diplomat that had been a County Sheriff car. The wheels were noticeably heavier than civilian, having been made by Chrysler (rather than by Kelsey-Hayes). And yes, it had load range E tires. oops, failed to log03:47, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Failed again! LorenzoB 03:47, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] runlock

British police cars have a system called "runlock", where the engine can be left running without the keys being left in the car, such that the controls are disabled but the engine is still running. This means that police who have left a car can return to the vehicle and make a quick getaway, without the risk of someone stealing or disalbing the car. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.192.32.66 (talk) 00:56, 11 May 2008 (UTC)