A police car is the description for a vehicle used by police, to assist with their duties in patrolling and responding to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transportation for officers to reach the scene of an incident quickly, to transport criminal suspects, or to patrol an area, while providing a high visibility deterrent to crime. Some police cars are specially adapted for work on busy roads.
The first police car was a wagon run by electricity fielded on the streets of Akron, Ohio in 1899. The first operator of the police patrol wagon was Akron Police officer Louis Mueller, Sr. It could reach 16 mph (26 km/h) and travel 30 mi (48 km) before its battery needed to be recharged. The car was built by city mechanical engineer Frank Loomis. The $2,400 vehicle was equipped with electric lights, gongs and a stretcher. The car's first assignment was to pick up an intoxicated man at Main and Exchange streets.
Commonly known names to describe police cars are (police) cruiser, squad car, panda car, area car and patrol car. Depending on the configuration of the emergency lights, a police car may also be called a marked unit. In some places a police car may also be informally known as a cop car, a black and white, a cherry top, a gumball machine, or a jam sandwich, in Los Angeles, from the early 50s, until the late 70s, the lights were different from most areas, with two forward facing, stationary red lights, with amber flashing lights facing rearward, inside of black metal housings mounted to the roof of the car. This configuration gave the Los Angeles police car the nickname tin can .
Usage
In some areas of the world, the police car has become more widely used than police officers "walking the beat". This is because there has been a shift in the focus of policing away from high visibility with "an officer on every street corner" to more focused services, sending officers out in response to incidents, and also allowing patrols to cover a much greater area in less time.
Advocates of community policing often cite this shift in to vehicles, and away from face to face contact, as a reason for breakdowns in relations with the community. As such, these organizations often ask police departments to encourage officers to spend less time in their vehicles and more time walking the streets and interacting with the community. This has led to some countries and forces, such as those in the United Kingdom, introducing more walking patrols, using either fully sworn Police Officers or Police Community Support Officers.
Functional types
There are several types of police car.
Bait car: Police forces may operate cars used to trap criminals who are stealing cars (by carjacking, breaking in or other means). The car is taken to a place where it is known to be at risk of theft, and allowed to be stolen. The police then track the vehicle, and can disable the engine and lock the doors by remote control. The same technique can be used to place portable items of value such as GPS units with an inbuilt tracker.
Equipment
Main article: Emergency vehicle equipmentPolice cars are usually passenger car models which are upgraded to the specifications required by the purchasing force. Several vehicle manufacturers, such as Ford and General Motors, provide a "police package" option, which is built to police specifications in the factory. Police forces may add to these modifications by adding their own equipment and making their own modifications after purchasing a vehicle.
Modifications a police car might undergo include adjustments for higher durability, speed, high mileage driving and long periods of idling at a higher temperature. This is usually accomplished by heavy duty suspension, brakes, calibrated speedometer, tires, alternator, transmission and cooling systems, and also sometimes includes slight modifications to the car's stock engine or the installation of a more powerful engine than would be standard in that model. It is also usual to upgrade the capacity of the electrical system of the car to accommodate the use of additional electronic equipment.
Audible and visual warnings
Police vehicles are often fitted with audible and visual warning systems to alert other motorists of their approach or position on the road. In many countries, use of the audible and visual warnings affords the officer a degree of exemption from road traffic laws (such as the right to exceed speed limits, or to treat red stop lights as a yield sign) and may also suggest a duty on other motorists to move out of the direction of passage of the police car or face possible prosecution.
Visual warnings on a police car can be of two types: either passive or active .
Passive visual warnings
Passive visual warnings are the markings on the vehicle. Police vehicle markings usually make use of bright colours or strong contrast with the base colour of the vehicle. Modern police vehicles in some countries have retroreflective markings which reflect light for better visibility at night. Other police vehicles may only have painted on or non-reflective markings. Most marked police vehicles in the United Kingdom and Sweden have reflective Battenburg markings on the sides, which are large blue and yellow rectangles. These markings are designed to have high contrast and be highly visible on the road, to deter crime and improve safety. Another passive visual warning of police vehicles is simply the interceptor's silhouette. This is easily observed in the United States, where the ubiquitous nature of the Ford Crown Victoria in police fleets has made the model synonymous with police vehicles.
Police vehicle marking schemes usually include the word Police or similar phrase (such as State Trooper or Highway Patrol ) or the force's crest. Some police forces use unmarked vehicles, which do not have any passive visual warnings at all.
Active visual warnings
The active visual warnings are usually in the form of flashing coloured lights (also known as 'beacons' or 'lightbars'). These flash in order to attract the attention of other road users as the police car approaches, or to provide warning to motorists approaching a stopped vehicle in a dangerous position on the road. Common colours for police warning beacons are blue and red, however this often varies by force. Several types of flashing lights are used, such as rotating beacons, halogen lights, or light emitting diode strobes. Some police forces also use arrow sticks to direct traffic, or message display boards to provide short messages or instructions to motorists. The headlights of some vehicles can be made to flash, or small strobe lights can be fitted in the headlight, tail light and indicator lights of the vehicle.
Audible warnings
In addition to visual warnings, most police cars are also fitted with audible warnings, sometimes known as sirens, which can alert people and vehicles to the presence of an emergency vehicle before they can be seen. The first audible warnings were mechanical bells, mounted to either the front or roof of the car. A later development was the rotating air siren, which made noise when air moved past it. Most modern vehicles are now fitted with electr