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.

Um, this is already being done. I read a while ago about something I'll see if I can dig it up...

Here we go:

Ford Hybrids: Tough Enough To Be Police Cars in New York City

the hyundai sonata is built in america in alabama if i remember correctly, can get it with a 2.0 direct injected turbo that will haul @$$ . . i admit it would look a little funny to see lrpd driving a hyundai but we have customers claiming 35-40 mpg from them. but they wouldn't stand the abuse being police cars.

Its clear that some of the big cities have bought in, but the smaller cities and towns have not.

One of the big requirements for a cop car is that it be a four door model and big enough to have a cage in the back seat. Not too many hybrids fit this requirement.

Another requirement is that they be rear wheel drive for performance and handling on pavement. Again most hybrids do not fit the bill.

In big cities cops don't transport the criminals. They call for a van to pick them up and take them to jail.

Why not get the police etc to use DIESEL cars.. The police here in the UK use tuned vauxhall astra 1.7/2.0L diesels, and they are plenty fast enough..

I like the idea of a separate battery for just the radio gear from ~ Frank Lee.

As for idling so much just for the use of the air-con.. turn OFF the car and OPEN the window. Duh?

Having driven a police interceptor, they aren't THAT bad on gas when you consider they're basically a truck. V8? Yup. Close to 3 tons? Yup. Still not that bad if driven carefully, probably 25 MPG range highway, 20 MPG city.

An easier method would seem to be give the officer incentive to conserve gas. Make HIM pay the gas he uses, but re-imburse him at say 50 cents a mile. That way he can drive like a nut and not be punished for it. But the smart ones will try and make their money back and save a bit for their selves.

Or maybe I'm putting too much faith in people being aware that their driving habits save them money at all.

Few EU police cars outside Germany actually are RWD.
Most are plain FWD, like what most coppers are used to drive of their own.
Their vehicles range from Arragonis' Aygo to BMW X5s, though most intervention units drive vans or mid-size sedans. Many of them are diesels.

At least here in Belgium, local police officers usually don't get much if any performance driving education. Some barely have their driver's licence before being sent out after the baddies. Federal officers assigned to traffic units do get better training, as do the special duty guys.

I'm really liking this idea.

As someone who sometimes travels for business using my own car I like to maximise what I get for the money. The official payout is 40 pence per mile so if I can spend less (by maximising FE) then thats in my pocket vs someone else's.

I did this with my company Rover 220 SDi - every mile I drove for business (which was 95% of them) I earned around 10 pence.

Lovely.

Strange how some urban police have always managed to do bike & foot patrols...

2003 Hyundai Tiburon GT | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

this is the first time i have tried posting a link i thought this was funny there is no way im pulling over for this car.

Yes there is a huge difference in what you see and hear on foot Vs. driving around with the windows up and A/C on.

Unfortunately, the Crown Vic is probably the best suited to that duty. Roomy enough, powerful enough, reasonable aero. The body-on-frame design means that it can still be repaired economically when unibody cars have to be sent to the crusher.

If they had replaced the gas guzzler and 4-speed auto with a smaller Ecoboost engine with auto start/stop and maybe a tiny NiMH pack (just enough for the start/stop and to run the A/C and 12V accessories without running the engine), and put in a more efficient transmission, it would probably get twice the overall mileage for not a lot more money.

This is the last month that Ford is building the Crown Victoria anyway -
Ford's replacing it with the FWD Taurus, an even larger car.

If the police want more power, they can get the 3.5L Ecoboost Taurus with AWD, and if they need more room the Explorer is also available as the "Police Utility" - note this is the NEW unibody Explorer, not the older body-on-frame model, and shares a lot of components with the Taurus.

Ford is intending the cars to be used like this -
Base FWD 3.7 L V-6 - Routine city patrols
Premium AWD 3.5 L V-6 - Highway Patrol, high speed pursuit

The Explorer based units would be used like the police currently use their SUV's (K-9, drug enforcement, evidence collection, etc) with FWD and AWD versions.

Supposedly, the larger Taurus based PI goes faster (better acceleration, not a better top speed), stops faster, maneuvers better, and uses less fuel than the Crown Victoria it's replacing, and still maintains its 75 MPH rear crash rating. it's also got a larger interior and more trunk space.

Get used to this headlight style in your rearview mirror -
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...1280x960-2.jpg

I really wish the police would not only use ford taurus'.. but give them a flat spray paint job.

http://robocoparchive.com/info/car4.JPG

Isn't that a Tempo?

No- this is a Tempo

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...93Tempo002.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...93Tempo003.jpg