Great Cars: POLICE CARS

the police are constantly thrust into dangerous situations a quiet street can quickly erupt quick-thinking is often not enough the police must turn to their shield and companion the police car police departments are searching the past to discover ways to make the modern police car even better [Music] the modern police car is found in many types of locations it has to be ready for an almost unlimited set of different duties [Music] whether it serves in the city or helps to make a routine traffic stop along a freeway the police cars routes shape for the role it plays police cars were developed in response to the evolving nature at police work at first the policeman was a neighborhood watchman who made his rounds on foot people turn to him for help a core of foot patrolmen ensured a rapid response to a problem but when arrests were made the beat cop was stuck with his prisoner actually they you know the lack of a vehicle is very interesting in terms of making an arrest you the police officer had to actually take the suspect physically on foot down to the station house now 80% of arrests in that time period were for some alcohol related offense drunkenness drunken disorderly so you can imagine what what that task was like these people were out of control to begin with and many of them didn't want to go prisoners were hauled away in coveted patrol vehicles called paddy wagons something this was a pejorative that referred to poor Irish prisoners others say it was inspired by the padding used to protect the passengers foot patrolmen were also helped by mounted policemen horses were an effective way to control a crowd and kids loved them when I was growing up in New York as a youngster the New York City Police Department had a large mounted contingency and every afternoon I would see this mass of police officers on horseback riding down the street and they would basically peel off to their particular zones and I would sit out in front of my house and wait because I knew that the officer who had my my house in his zone or my block would first make a round and then he would come over to me and he took the time to climb down because I was a little kid looking up at this huge man on a mountain and he would then pick me up and take me up on the horse with him and ride me around his particular zone and it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it the closeness of the beat cop to the community created bonds as populations grew however officers were forced to cover wider areas but technology kept up this was seen as early as the 1880s and 90s the bicycle was the newest form of Transportation and it became a fad all across the United States that attracted young people in Detroit citizens demanded that the police go after wild young men on bicycles who raced down sidewalks and streets breaking the six miles per hour speed limit Police Chief Frank Cruz hired bicyclists to enforce the speed laws they earned the nickname scorches due to their lightning speed the Scorchers were the first wheeled patrol and pursuit police as the bike boom waned another innovation started to make its way out of the stage the automobile [Music] in 1909 the forward-thinking cruel's cost the Detroit City Council for a police color when they refused he dug into his pocket and spent three hundred and fifty dollars of his own money for a new 1909 packet now when when the patrol car first arrives police chiefs think it's a godsend they think it's the solution to all of their problems the problem was that when officers were on foot they couldn't really cover all of their beats well suddenly looks like but the patrol car they're going to be able to patrol cover their beats cover them in a very rapid fashion so police chiefs get really hooked on patrol cars it's almost like a drug it didn't take long for America to fall in love with the automobile from New York to California streets became clogged with cars but most police forces still have their officers walking beats the cop on the beat was still a part of community life but the growth of the automobile started to expand the boundaries of the community it made it nearly impossible to patrol these larger spaces on foot horseback or bicycle the police realized they had to motorize to cover bigger areas there were also new challenges posed by automobiles dangerous train crossings and traffic accidents police officials were about to face another demand by the public combat a crime wave [Applause] in the 1920s prohibition and the criminals who ran the illegal booze racket spawned a vast wealthy outlaw underground while many people wanted to drink the average citizen didn't like the increase in crime that drew out of prohibition but the purveyors of illegal hooch drove big fast cars that could speed away from the police to match their technology the cops needed faster orders of their own the 1920s you see a rise in gangsterism as you will the gangsters could afford the large long-wheelbase touring cars and sedans that had very powerful engines so the police tried to incorporate some of those in their own Arsenal's of vehicles so they could do battle with the gangsters the police wanted to get better cause but usually it could only afford low-priced slow cars many assumed police cars were always especially prepared high-performance autos that's one of the big misconceptions about police cars from that era the police cars were exactly the same as the retail car the car that mom and pop drove whether it be a Ford or a Chevrolet or a Plymouth that would be the low-priced three from which police cars came they were exactly the same as police cars police cars were retail cars with a badge on the side the end of prohibition in 1933 didn't reduce the need for the police to modernize while alcohol could once again be purchased legally the racketeers who'd flourished during its man did not go away with repeal they'd organized and turn to ventures like gambling and prostitution in fact the police had even more problems that would tax their efforts to maintain law and order during Prohibition the criminal element had mostly been confined to the cities but after the collapse of the stock market in 1929 an era of economic depression and lawlessness spread out across the country there were gangs there were thugs if you will petty criminals burglarizing service stations oil companies and bank robberies were quite prevalent too of course for a bank robber to be able to move into small communities where law enforcement was limited and then make a hasty getaway via a state highway jumping across a county line or a state line was was quite prevalent in the 1930s police agencies began to spend more money on training equipment and especially on cars the auto became the symbol of the police but these cars were still pretty tame low powered cruisers a 1931 Ford model a roadster cost only 413 dollars new and not much more for the police package of twin klaxon horns spotlight fire extinguisher first aid kit and decals that transformed it into a patrol car there was a lighted sign on the inside the right front windshield that said patrol that lighted up at night beyond that there was no special equipment for the officers there were no two-way radios communication was virtually non-existent and the officers were really out there on their own no extras meant no heaters and some police chiefs instructed that officers drive with the top down regardless of the temperature they wanted the public to know that the drivers were police officers [Music] these stole it but low powered Road Warriors were coming up against some of the most brutal and dangerous criminals of the 20th century crooks who became legend John Dillinger Pretty Boy Floyd babyface Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly were making their mark on America's heartland and keeping one step ahead of the law [Music] the police agencies found themselves in the thick of the fight as these gangs moved into new territories the fledgling highway patrols were flung into battle our primary focus was supposed to be enforcement of traffic regulations but with these officers out there now the mobility they had the mobility the officers had they became crime fighters these officers were challenged by one of the most notorious outlaw gangs the Barrows or Bonnie and Clyde Clyde Barrow attributed his success at eluding capture to the speed of his v8 powered Ford which had usually stolen he's reported to have even written Henry Ford a glowing thank-you letter the Ford never used this endorsement in its ads [Music] in one year the Barrow gang was responsible for more than 20 robberies four kidnappings and the killing of nine policemen and three citizens but the police started to close in Bonnie and Clyde were racing for their lives a team of police set up a roadblock and waited Bonnie and Clyde drove into the trap on a quiet Louisiana country road close by their hideout this time a speedy car wouldn't help the taking of Bonnie and Clyde was big news all over the country more than three thousand people came out to see the bodies inside the remains of the shot up car the police found 15 stolen license plates that had helped the gang fool their pursuers they also found an arsenal of over 16 handguns shotguns machine guns and five thousand rounds of ammunition Clyde Barrow wasn't Fords only fan the police were also impressed with Ford's durable and powerful v8 engines after they were introduced at the National Chiefs of Police Convention Ford's became the favorite of police departments across the country it was a very hot little engine for the time and it was quite a radically different design for the time everything prior to them was the straight in line four or six cylinder or eight cylinder engines the Fords new affordable v8 made it the police car favorite a position fought held from the 1930s through the 1960s and was not only the power from the Ford flathead but also the reliability at high engine speeds at low engine speeds the Chevrolet and the Plymouth did just fine but sustained driving at 70 or 80 which at that time was almost top speed at those high engine speeds only the Ford flathead wood was reliable while the v-8 improved the speed of the car the invention of two-way radios vastly revolutionised the speed of communication there was no immediate contact between the field and red corner police were now mortifications being able to check driver's licenses and driver's records themselves have it seeing a license a license plate on a vehicle and being able to communicate with your headquarters and find out to whom that vehicle was registered whether or not it was stolen you can imagine how that revolutionised law enforcement but just as the police car began to improve and other technology gave cops and edge on criminals the threat of war loomed world war two was about to put everything on hold the focus had to shift to a bigger fight after the war auto production geared up again road-weary police cars needed to be replaced and soon there was an array of choices the new cars began showing up in the newly built suburbs that sprang up around the United States police in these new towns struggled to patrol the never-ending sprawl distances kept getting greater response times longer and as more people hit the road for business and pleasure the State Police and highway patrols felt the strain the new wide four and six lane freeways brought a need for more powerful and agile police cars Chevrolet had improved their six-cylinder engine and had almost closed the gap with Ford Chevy introduced a fully automatic transmission a two-speed Powerglide and paired it with a 105 horsepower 235 cubic inch truck engine the three-speed manual cars still used the smaller 90 horsepower 216 cubic inch six the smaller engine was a competent performer it had zero to 60 times of around 20 seconds and top speeds of 80 miles per hour the car companies were starting to take the police car market seriously they were starting to offer some heavier-duty components realizing that the number of hours and miles that a police car had to endure had to be built stronger improvements by Chevrolet in 1953 helped their police cruisers reached top speeds of nearly a hundred miles per hour the increased speeds required stiff racing-style suspensions heavier springs to keep the car from bottoming out stiff shocks to dampen the heavy springs and sway bars to steady the car as it went down the road or in a turn all this and the secret weapon a heavy-duty cooling system were helping the police outrun the bad guys the cooling package is truly what makes a police car police cars may not be able to outrun any other vehicle on the road but they certainly will be able to outlast them in terms of cooling performance there have been many pursuits that have ended when the bad guy overheats police officer behind and is still in a car that's very much under temperature control when Ford Unleashed the white block overhead valve a v8 in the mid-1950s it reclaimed the police car crown Ford kept improving its cars its fleet division put together a number of commonly ordered heavy-duty components into a group the first police package at a hundred and sixty-one horsepower engine heavy-duty suspension heavy-duty seats though it was made for really highway patrol work in 1957 Ford again kept ahead of the competition when it offered to high-compression BH called the interceptors with four-barrel carburetors and the same engine as it had in its Thunderbird force interceptors were high-powered winners fort lead did not go unchallenged but no matter what the competition did when Andy Griffith chose a fort for his Mayberry patrol car its place in history was assured priceless Dodge brand entered the horsepower race and produced the first real challenge to forge dominance the Hemi Dodge released the new hemispherical IDI v8 and got a considerable jump in horsepower over the competition at that time for the next three decades Gordon Chevrolet were forced to play catch-up to Chrysler as it created a string of ever faster police cars they became the must-haves for suburban police departments one reason catching speeders was becoming a big business those crazy cats will never catch on the police needed to compete on the fast moving interstates the officers were there to stop speeders day and night there are plenty of opportunities to catch speeders sometimes it's harder than others but most people pull over quickly take their ticket and go highway safety is improved and a great deal of revenue is generated [Music] while the traffic cop was a financial boon for many communities over dependence on the police car became a problem throughout the 1960s and 70s the police car was beginning to be seen as part of the problem police departments fell in love with the automobile it also signaled a sign or time that in reality unless we had a certain number of officers who were assigned specifically to do foot patrol that we were removing them from that close association with the community and what they didn't see what they just didn't think about was this how isolated the officer from from communities they they just didn't see it and it really was until the riots of the 1960s that literally woke up the country - this is unintended impact of the patrol car many police departments are trying to redefine the role of the police car foot patrols are also coming back the need to remake the police car came at a time when Chrysler and Chevrolet withdrew from the police car business this left Ford's Crown Victoria as a tested and accepted police sedan Ford now has the same advantage that they had back in the 30s they've got the only car that police departments want like it or not it drives the cost of bidding up or no longer has to be competitive with Chevrolet or Chrysler product however the Ford police package in the Crown Victoria is an excellent vehicle Chevrolet is trying to convince police departments that its large sports utility vehicle that Tahoe is a solution Chevy says the SUV is better adapted to the ever-changing world of policing what the Tahoe offers in a post-911 environment is not only the ability to package more cargo in the rear of the vehicle it also provides the ability to package more equipment in the occupant area as well extended communication capability paperless tickets systems as well as in the rear of the vehicle you have your hazardous material your portable labs tactical equipment things of that nature not everyone wants to give up the school vehicle for an SUV when a Tahoe will be considered a high-performance Highway type vehicle is it going to meet that bill I don't know I I kind of doubt it while doubts remain about the future of the police car there is hope in 2005 Chrysler unveiled what could be the future of law enforcement the Dodge Charger police package police packets carries a lot of safety features we carry in our own vehicles it comes with the five-seven and the engine as well which would be great I wouldn't want to be on the other side of the police chase because they're gonna catch it out with that horsepower and really the safety features abs brakes he's got all the electronic stability control all the things police enforcement organizations have been looking for it we're all driving and really a lot of space in there comfort is great too soon that package is what they've been looking for when this new breed of police car arrives it is certain to attract a lot of interest while everyone is special aided by police cause the officers have a special trailer in it especially in chambers sometimes we use video cameras love affair with your car you really do it's it's almost an intimate relationship because you're there every day whether it's a response to a shooting whether it's delivering a baby in the backseat the exciting things that happen to police officers good and bad almost always involve their car no matter how much policing changes in the future it's clear there will always be a need for the police car a car that can keep up with the bad guys and keep us safe [Music]

Channel: King Rose Archives

Views: 32,175

Keywords: Police, Bonnie and Clyde, Sir Robert Peel, Crime, Gangsters

Id: 0FR62QzokQM

Length: 25min 6sec (1506 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 09 2017