Town and city police in hybrids
 

My mechanical engineer buddy wants to start something to where town and city police fleets would have to start buying a lot more hybrid cop cars.
He got the idea to do this when he saw a prius cop car at hampton university, he doesn't think it will catch on by its self.
He claims far too many tax dollars are being wasted buying gas guzzeling cars and then fueling them over there life time of very slowly accumilated miles.
Life as a cop car is harsh. Life as a taxi, worse. But they seem to make great taxi cars.
He says most cop cars spend a lot of time ideling with the A/C on and drive most of there miles well under 50mph. He would know since most of his family are cops and resent the idea of having a fleet heavy with hybrids.

Clearly the state police and any one charged with highway patrol would get the big fast cars to do there job.

Any one have any input on this?

The reason often given for all that idling is to keep the batteries up because the radios draw so much. I think the waste from the amount of idling they do is criminal.

I would think that we have the technology to make radios that draw so little idling could be reduced/eliminated. There are so many possibilities: sleep mode, miniaturization of the circuits, having a separate battery for the radios ala campers such that there is no possibility of being caught with a low cranking battery, or even a dedicated micro diesel genset for all their gear and even HVAC- save the big V8 lump for pursuits, etc.

I don't think current hybrids are fast enough for high speed pursuits, or for getting to the scene of a crime as fast as possible. I know it's a high price to pay for a vehicle that may only need to be pushed to the max a handful of times in its life, but the ability to chase criminals is the most important thing.

How about an incentive for traffic cops who voluntary choose to drive more efficiently?

Houston bought a fleet of Prius a few years back. they where used for like the fire inspector, health code officials, Social services. They found that they spent more money on the up keep than if they would have bought more FE ICE. And got rid of them. I think mostly because they where abused and the proper training for the upkeep was not good. I'm not saying its a bad idea but those battery pack's are not cheap. Maybe with the proper maintenance training and driving it would be a better plan.

Read some were they now have a system for police cars that will restart the car when the battery voltage gets low eliminating the need to for the car to idle constantly. It also had security feature that not just anyone could drive it off.

This is America and we want our police to drive American cars! when was the last time you saw a cop in a Toyota or Honda?
With that said, Toyota Camery Hybrid would be just the ticket with a combined 187hp and electronic A/C, being 40% USA made it might not be favored as much but the classic crown vic cop car is only 75% USA made.

I've read about a few police departments adding solar panels to their cars to keep the batteries charged allowing them to run the engine less, if I remember right the pay back on the solar panels from saved gas was months or so.

Right. And your average cell phone will run how long on its tiny little Lion battery?

The real reason, as with so much else, is that most cops need the big, powerful car in order to feel macho.

when you don't transmit with a radio it doesn't take that much battery.

Let me suggest an alternate approach:

• department buys the car, $25-27,000 fixed price limit
• official identifies and finds the car within the budget limit
• department pays the maintenance (department owned asset)
• government official paid the fuel cost at US Federal Government per-diem

What this does is let the official choose between a wide range of moderately priced vehicles. They can get something that meets their expectations for their work. However, if they choose a fuel efficient vehicle, their family gets "egg money" . . . their choice.

Bob Wilson

I would be willing to accept them buying a car made out of american steel and put together by american workers. The idea is to keep as much of the vehicle as possible made and assembled in north america.
I think its more damaging to the economy burn tax payer dollars in a gas hog crown vic than to buy a made in USA honda or toyota hybrid.