O/T What's going on?

More and more, lately, I've been seeing Nebraska State Troopers going about their business, making traffic stops, etc., while driving pickup trucks instead of standard issue Ford Crown Vic patrol cars.

And they're not unmarked. They have the same "State Trooper" decals, light bars, etc. as the patrol cars.

Other than probably no one expects to be caught doing 85 mph on I-80 in a trooper driving a pickup truck, I don't see any advantage a pickup would have over a patrol car. And I don't know if they're stock pickups or special versions. The Game Commission officers usually drive 4X4 pickups, but they're usually crawling around in the boondocks instead of making high speed stops on the Interstate.

Anyway, if you're prone to speeding through Nebraska, keep your eyes open for pickup trucks as well as patrol cars.

The State can spend more on fuel costs !

I haven't seen any Nebraska state troopers around here.

We've had so many problems with the Crown Vic's we have gone to the Chevy SUV Cruisers. Only thing GM makes....James

Chargers are the new stste cruisers here. County uses crown vics and trailblazers.

Might have made more sense with all the snow you had earlier? Tore all the cars up. City, county, state mixes them up here but most are chargers now. Another Ford mistake!

It's so they can load up the illegals and transport them back to Mexico?

The ones Ive been noticing look like the K-9 units.Maybe they're adding more K-9 units to the fleet.A man and a dog are cheaper than 2 men.

Our County Sheriff's Department is using Chargers now. In fact they lost two in a 13 car pileup on the Interstate in a snowstorm a month or so ago.

My dads with the sherriffs dept and some how ended up with a impala.

In Maryland they have Mustangs, Camaros, and I've seen the station wagon looking Magnums.

Ford will only be making the Crown Vic another year or so - to many years of building the same car without updates combined with new CAFE regulations has killed it. As for driving pickups - I guess they figured getting 14mpg will burn through tax dollars faster.

The newer Impalas are great cars, faster and more agile than a Crown Vic with more safety features (side airbags) that makes them marginally safer (the body on frame construction of a Crown Vic is still one tough SOB).

They'll learn. The Charger has a lot of brake problems and their transmission issues will keep the service departments busy much the same way the attempt at making the Intrepid a police car ended in abject failure. The rear suspension on their unibody frame won't stand up to many medium crossovers either.

I've seen a number of OPP officers in Ontario driving 3/4 ton diesel trucks, marked as well, and more SUVs. I think they're having problems with some of the officers being unable to fit for long shifts in the newer cruisers. Ever tried to fit 6'4 or 6'5 in a Magnum?

I suggest that we take the negative comments about the Dodge brand with a grain of salt. All brands experience problems. The difference is that people who generally don't like a brand name to begin with (usually just based on some unfounded bias) will soak up any and all problems encountered by the unliked brand name and exaggerate them ten-fold while down-playing similar problems on the brand they like. Same thing applies to tractor brands.

I don't live in Neb. but Colorado does have a few SUV,s our county only has SUV,s and pickup's the sheriff has a 4 door Dodge 2500.

The Indiana State Police have a few pickups painted in DOT colors that they park in construction zones as radar platforms with a regular car just down the way to stop the speeders.

It allows them to be able to pick up a few sheets of plywood or what ever and drop it off at home while on duty!

Here in Vermont, the police from all departments are replacing cars with big SUVs and pickups, the Vermont State Police have even got themselves a one ton 4x4 dually crew cab and its all marked up with a light bar and the whole nine yards like their regular cars. Doesn't make much sense to me. If they ever needed to pursue somebody in a sports car or on a motorcycle, those trucks wouldn't stand a chance.

Full size pickups and SUVs can be maintained easier and sometimes cheaper than fancy new unibody cars- important consideration in rough service. The old Crown Vic drive train compared to the GM frontdrive a couple years back in the car magazines- U joint replacement in Crown Vic was a $50.00 repair at highend- similar service in the front drive GM called for complete driveshaft assembly at $200.00+ at low end. Transmission repairs similar- about twice as much for the front drive in both parts and labor. Chevy Suburban SUV chosen by California Highway Patrol to replace the Chevy sqaud cars when the Caprice rear drive discontinued. Police cruiser working conditions tougher than regular car service- extra ground clearance handy, ease of repair important, big doors and headroom also important. RN

Transmission issues in a Dodge? I never heard of such a thing LOL

RN. Exactly. No one builds a car anymore that will hold up to the demands of any law enforcement agency. Plus, those pick-up trucks are much more capable of going off the beaten path when the call arises, and the call does arise quite often. The officers need to be able to get to those hidden meth labs and the hiding places of the illegal immigrants.

I was curious as to what brand of pickup trucks they are using in NE.

The local PD (in our town of 1700) bought a four door Chebby fullsized pickup last year. SOMEHOW they convinced the city it was gonna be CHEAPER then a car. All I ever see is it at the gas station, filling up.

The windows are higher so they can get their donuts easier at Dunkin Donuts.

I'm from So. Dak. & have bought several old tractors in NE,KS & OK. Yes I have seen F150 ext cabs in NE. What surprised me was in OK about four years ago. Got tractor loaded about about dark, got a motel, next morning VERY foggy. Had about 50 miles to go up I35 & seen 15- 20 OHP 4x4 Suburbans just sitting in median on the way, with lites flashing, just slowing traffic down. I thought it was a good idea. SD realy needs those big 4x4s about 5 mos. out of the year but we are only starting to see a few.

The state police here in Michigan are using a lot of Tahoe 4x4's. Lots of room, can really take a beating. Maybe not as fast as a sedan, but I haven't seen anybody yet outrun a radio. In the winter in Michigan, a 4x4 is a very good idea.

Here in Tx., State Troopers have been driving anything from the Hwy Pursuit Mustangs to SUV"s. City police have P/Us and SUV"s, too.

If you don"t have a lead foot, it doesn"t matter what the State Troopers and police are driving, plus takes less gas.

In SC, we have everything from Fords to Dodges, and I have seen a few BMW state trooper cars in the past. Some sort of deal the state made with BMW over tax issues no doubt.

I would be willing to bet that your troopers are doing DOT work...
Trucks make a nice platform for carrying portable scales.
The weignmen have used trucks like that for many years around here. There's also been talk of having the DOT crew rolled into the provincial police duties here... with the idea being that there would be a LOT more scales on the road.
Mabey somethign similar there?

Rod

My neighbor in the subdivison across the road is a state trooper and he has one of the Big Ford F-150 extended cabs. I see it quite often and it has really caused me to slow down coming home and going into town.....wonder if he would cut a neighbor some slack? I hope I don't have to find out....
Tom

I have no problem with Dodge, but their transmission issues are well known though out the industry. When the 3.5 engine in their older "police package" was used the transmission (with specced cooler) could handle it. When they introduced the 5.7 police package in the 2009 model year they've already experianced a spat of failures.

As for the brakes - it well documented that the the Dodge police package with Dodge specced brakes only lasted 7k to 9k in mileage - usually about half that of the Crown Vic and the Impala.

http://www.allpar.com/squads/police-cars/charger.html

There is a big deal here in western SC about a company going to bring jobs and big bucks to the area making a purpose built police car. They showed a pic which didn't tell me anything. I don't know what's going on, but you may remember back in the late 50's Checker made a special car for a taxi. Rode in one once, very roomy, and they tried to use heavy duty parts.

KEH

Ford

Well, I'm only guessing but after 20+ years as a cop I can tell you the interior of cars has gotten progressively smaller and the equipment required to do the job has gotten larger and more complex. Basically, there's not enough room in many cars to carry all the crap you have to carry, plus the radios and computer and light controls and scanners and printers, and inverter and then there's shot guns and first aid kits and fire extinguishers and stop sticks and triangles and blood kits and all the other garbage you have to have and....you get the idea. Add that to the fact you have to have room for prisoners or another cop and you can see where a pick up looks pretty practical. My last vehicle was a 1 ton Ford van. THAT was overkill. I often said a 1/2 PU with an extra cab would have made a lot more sense.

Checker made that same car from the 50's to the 80's. At one time virtually all the taxis were checkers. A neighbor of mine had a 1980 civilian version, with a diesel engine in it. Last I saw it was in 2002 -3, his wife and daughter were driving it. Darn things are really heavy, built like tanks. I think they went out in the early 80's.

I bet Ford was just giving a unbeatable deal on F150's for fleet use.

Have seen the same thing in our industry.
We started with S10's every at our company had them and all our competitors had the same vehicles.
Then one year all the new trucks were Rangers. Same with every one else.

Next year it was mazdas.(same as the Rangers) but every one else had Mazdas too.

Next year it was extcab Dakotas. ( Liked those!)

Then it went to Chevy full size WT's

Then back to Rangers. its all about who wants the sales volume at the time.

I've seen them in AZ for years, unmarked. Some in UT too.

I had a neighbor that was a trooper that had a pickup. I asked him how he managed to get that instead of the car he usually had. He said the pickups are more efficient for what they are using them for. The diesel engines (f-250s) get decent milage and are able to carry lots more stuff than the cars could. He said the 4x4 is pretty handy at times too.

I have seen Washington State Patrol Troopers using marked Ford Explorers or Expeditions, as well as some new Chargers, but mostly they continue to use Crown Victorias. I think they have tried some Chevy Caprices, but have not been pleased with the handling of the front wheel drive cars, and the durability may not be up to the task.

Lots of cities have been using the Chevys successfully. I think the jury is still out on the Chargers. Police agencies are usually very conservative about what they buy for cars, since the cars are such a huge budget item. The best police cars are the ones that can get the job done and hold together over the long term without having to keep fixing things all the time. The Crown Vics are big enough to haul all the equipment around, are heavy enough so they stand a chance in a pushing contest, have very predictable decent handling, get reasonable gas mileage, and most important of all, they don't break much.

The Crown Victorias have had a great run as police cars, without a whole lot of changes for more than 15 years. There are faster cop cars, but the Crown Vics hold together better than almost anything else. It will be too bad when they are no longer available. I don't think that Crown Vics are still sold to the general public, but similar Mercurys are still for sale new. Since those cars have changed so little, and since you see so many of them still in service, I would guess that the Crown Vic and Merc Marquis have made Ford a lot of money. Maybe the tooling is near the end of it's useful life.

When Ford brought out the Crown Vic with the 4.6L SOHC engine, they did not put out a police package the first year or so, just civilian models. Our local Sheriff's Department had used Fords for years, but since the new Crown Vic was not available as a police package, Spokane County bought Chevy Caprices for a couple of years. The Caprices were faster than the Crown Vics they replaced, by far, but they had LOTS of transmission problems with them. When the police package came out on the Crown Vic, Spokane County bought them. They have worked out well, and I don't think Spokane County has bought much else since about 1992. It will be interesting to see if Ford comes up with a replacement police vehicle if, in fact they quit producing Crown Vics.

I would wonder how well a pickup or SUV would work out as a sometimes pursuit vehicle, as compared to a large sedan, but maybe the manufacturers have figured out how to make the trucks handle well enough. Obviously in some conditions a 4x4 pickup could go some places that a sedan could not. But unless the manufacturers give the fleet buyers SCREAMING DEALS on the trucks, I don't see how they could compete with the fleet spec sedans prices.

Police vehicles have an interesting history. They went from the cheapest standard cars that the agencies could find, to the super heavy duty specialized vehicles produced today. It will be interesting to see what is used in the future.

they've been using large suv's and pickups around here since the 70's, cops got tired of people getting away by simply taking off up a ranch road or going up 4x4 trails in the woods around here,the cops would follow then get high centered in their crusiers the state police still have some cars, but they mainly operate on the hiway its the sheriff and the local cops that have to go get 'em off hiway

I have a feeling it is due to two things-

1. A couple years ago, the carrier enforcement division was totally merged with the regular state patrol; everybody is on the same page now (no more green and tan uniforms). At least some of the pickups you see are probably carrying portable scales, which was what carrier enforcement was moving toward when I got out of law enforcement (in late 2000).

2. The pickups probably hold their value better. This is not as minor a reason as you may think; if they can net an extra grand or two selling a retired pickup versus a sedan, it can help the bottom line.