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Come this summer, you may see a new NYPD car - the Dodge Charger, best known as the Dukes of Hazzard car. The NYPD is adding fifteen 4-door Chargers for its Highway Unit - they must really love the Hemi - and ten will be tested this summer. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "We're always looking for good equipment, including a little muscle in the car department," which almost sounds dirty. Of course, the NYPD's cars will have "fortified front seats, no rear-door handles and heftier brakes" according to the Daily News. Gothamist just hopes "Dixie" won't play on the siren.
Most of the NYPD's patrol cars are Crown Vics and Chevy Impalas. And a couple weeks ago, there was a great New Yorker article about car chases in LA - and why they tend to be television events. Since the article isn't online, here's a Q&A between the article's writer Tad Friend and fellow NYer writer Ben Greenman.
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I just saw an interesting cop car yesterday that looked like a taxi; pretty sneaky. It had just turned its lights on over by the Manhattan Bridge. The car was complete with fare info on the doors and was of course yellow.
Hmm, Recruiting incentive?
"Join the NYPD and drive a Sporty Car!"
Yeah the undercover taxicops have been around for a while...i remember them being in Times Square the days before Y2K.
As for the Dodge Charger cop cars, it's not a bad decision. Dodge primped the Charger to be a patrol vehicle when it debuted. The Ford Crown Victoria (the oldest model in the patrol car fleet) has a 17MPG city rating. The Impala (2005 and older) does about 20MPG as it's got a V6 and is FWD.
The Dodge Charger with a Hemi does around the same as the Crown Vic. But that's not bad considering it pumps out a mind-numbing (for police cars) 340 HP! Because it's RWD, it's more of a traditional cop car.
Not a bad change for the NYPD, we'll see if they adopt the Chargers as their primary patrol vehicle.
Steve McQueen drove a Mustang in "Bullitt".
Extra info:
Fleet Prices, ie for Police departments
Dodge Charger V6- Approx. $22,000
Dodge Charger HEMI - Approx. $24,000
Ford Police Interceptor(Crown Victoria) V8 - Approx. $19,000
Chevy Imapala V6 - ? Probably a hair less than Ford..
Also, the Ford was intro'd in '92 as a new model, with an update in 2003. It's getting a bit long in the tooth, but fleet style cars usually have along production run. Chevy redesigned the Impala last year, but I haven't seen any NYPD driving the new models.
Those cattle catcher things on the front of the picture should be banned. They make injuries to pedestrians hit by cars even worse than they would be otherwise.
nypd is pathetic. they should all be putting their lard butts on bicycles.
Not saying this is true or not but the undercover taxis I've seen had two people in the car.
The driver and his partner. and not as a passenger.
You can tell which cars are undercover taxi cops by looking closely:
1. There is no advertisement at the top
2. There's a zillion antennas on it
3. There's another person sitting in the front passenger seat, but not the back (as someone mentioned)
4. The "unoccupied" light is never on
5. The driver is white (hey, it's true)
6. The driver is fat
The driver is "white" is totally true.
And, if you're on the NYPD Highway unit, you're in an Elite unit.
I think those "cow catcher" bars are called "push bars" for stranded autos, to push them to safety.
There's some interesting info about the NYPD Highway Patrol on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYPD_Highway_Patrol
If you walk past any police station with all the regular and undercover cars parked outside, there's usually a taxi parked in there too. There's definitely one parked most times by the station on 51st around 3rd.
Barring the usual undercover cars, they are getting a tad bit creative and using japanese cars for undercover work and the other day when I was driving to school I saw a Toyota Camry police intercepter, outfitted with the baragge of antannae and push bars in the front and back, with the painfully obvious looking cops in the front. Although it wasn't painted in NYPD colors.
I wonder how much additional work was needed for the Camry? We know the Crown Vic PI get's the whole heavy duty package. (oil cooler, tranny, suspension, etc to make it the interceptor)
You think a Mini Cooper would be in their rotation?
Here's an idea, keep the old cars and pay nypd cops more money. I quit the force about 2 years ago and I was making $34k while in the academy. Now, they dropped the starting salary to about $25k if you join today.