The timeline

The American police car: every turning point

Forty-five turning points. Not the best cars — the moments the job changed.

1899 – 1946 — The car arrives, and nobody knows what it is for

Improvised, and usually outrun. Told properly in the complete history, under The wagon, and thirty years of losing.

These entries come from general automotive and police history rather than from a testing programme — no comparative police vehicle testing existed before the 1950s. Several early claims are contested, and are hedged here accordingly.

1. 1899Akron electric wagon Generally credited as the first motorised police vehicle in the United States. Battery powered, and abandoned within a few years. Watch: American Police Cars 1899–1932
2. 1909Motorcycle patrol Departments begin buying motorcycles in numbers, years before they trust cars. Cheaper, faster than most traffic, and able to use roads a car could not.
3. 1910sFord Model T The first police car most Americans ever see. Bought because it is cheap and repairable, not because it is suited to the work. Watch: The police motorcycle Watch: American Police Cars 1899–1932
4. 1928One-way radio Detroit puts receivers in patrol cars. The car stops being a way of getting to a station and becomes a way of being sent somewhere.
5. 1932Ford V8 A cheap mass-market V8 arrives — and criminals buy it first. Police spend the decade catching up with a car they could have had at the same price. Watch: Bootleggers before NASCAR
6. 1933Two-way radio Bayonne, New Jersey. An officer can now answer. Dispatch becomes a conversation, and the patrol car becomes part of a system.
7. 1934The Bonnie and Clyde Ford A stolen V8 makes the case publicly that outlaws are better mounted than the police. The pressure to buy performance becomes political. Watch: The Bonnie & Clyde Ford
8. 1934Federal pursuit powers The car crosses state lines and the law follows it. Federal agents get arrest and firearms authority, and vehicle crime becomes a federal matter. Watch: The stolen car that built the FBI
9. 1930sThe first police packages Manufacturers begin offering heavier springs, better cooling and bigger brakes as fleet options. The police car becomes a thing you can order.
10. 1942Production stops Civilian car manufacture ends for the duration. Departments run worn pre-war cars for four years, and the post-war fleet is rebuilt from nothing.

1946 – 1978 — The big sedan, and the first attempts to measure it

Horsepower arrives, then emissions rules take it away — and somebody starts writing the numbers down. Told properly in the complete history, under The package and The horsepower years.

1. 1950Ford The first factory-built police car. Until now a department bought a civilian car and modified it; from here it can order one. Watch: The first factory police car
2. 1955Chrysler C-300 The horsepower race reaches law enforcement. A police force can now order a car quicker than almost anything on the road. Watch: The Chrysler C-300
3. 1950sRadar Speed becomes provable without a pursuit. For the first time an officer can enforce a limit from a standstill. Watch: Proving speed without chasing it
4. 1969Dodge Polara 440 The high-water mark of the big-block pursuit sedan: 147 mph. No police sedan goes faster for thirty-seven years — though a police Camaro will. Watch: The fastest police car
5. 1968Federal safety standards Equipment departments want begins to collide with what federal rules permit. Purchase specifications start to be written around the law.
6. c.1970Wayne State console study Engineers measure whether an officer can physically reach the equipment, and build a centre console into a Detroit patrol car to prove it. Where the console came from → Watch: Eight hours inside a police car
7. 1973The economics get counted A federal study finds the police package costs $400 and the big engine $67 — and that a big-city patrol car loses 87% of its value in two years. What a police car was worth →
8. 1974The 55 mph limit The national speed limit changes what a patrol car is for. Fuel economy stops being a minor line in a purchase decision.
9. 1975Chevrolet Nova The LA County Sheriff tests six cars and a compact beats all of them — including two 400s. The first sign that size is not the answer. The California tests →
10. 1976Michigan starts comparing Michigan had tested patrol cars since the 1950s, but only the lowest bidder, against a pass-or-fail standard. Two bids arrive four dollars apart, and the department decides to test every car instead. The modern programme begins. Who started the tests →
11. 1976The federal police car A government prototype gets a database and a roll bar, and twenty more are readied for New Orleans and Dallas. It is cancelled before anyone drives one. The car that almost happened →
12. 1978Plymouth Fury 440 The last big block runs 132.7 mph while nothing else clears 118 — and two cars in the same test are disqualified outright. ‡ The 1978 Michigan test results → Watch: The Plymouth Fury

1978 – 2000 — Downsized

The big sedan dies, a two-door briefly takes its place, and the numbers start describing decisions rather than capabilities. Told properly in the complete history, under The collapse, and the strange rescue.

1. 1979Dodge St. Regis Downsizing reaches the police fleet. Departments discover that a smaller car with a smaller engine is not the same car. Watch: The St. Regis “dog car”
2. 1980Plymouth Gran Fury The first published Michigan report. A wrecked Volare crashes on a warm-up lap and still wins its class. The 1980 Michigan test results → Watch: The Plymouth Fury
3. 1982Ford Mustang SSP Michigan tests a twelfth car at Ford’s request and declines to publish its numbers. Within a year it is in CHP service. The police Mustang → Watch: The Mustang SSP
4. 1983Ford Mustang 302 H.O. 132 mph, and the shortest stop in the test — from a car that was not a police package and was not being scored. The 1983 Michigan test results →
5. 1987Dodge Diplomat Michigan raises the qualification bar and a quarter of a second ends the M-body’s bid. The standard, not the car, decides the year. The 1987 Michigan test results →
6. 1982–84Illinois removes its light bars Sixty cars go into service without roof lights. Two years later: a fifth the accident rate, and it becomes standard issue. The light bar study →
7. 1993Mustang SSP, last test The only cars in the field without anti-lock brakes, beaten in every column by the first LT1 Camaro. The 1993 Michigan test results → Watch: The Mustang SSP
8. 1995The limiter footnote appears A single asterisk — vehicle equipped with speed limiter — and the top speed column stops describing what a car can do. How top speed stopped meaning anything →
9. 1996Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 The last one runs 139 mph — and Ford brings a car without ABS purely to measure what the system is worth. It is sixteen feet. Sixteen feet → Watch: The Caprice 9C1
10. 1997No Caprice The first test without one, and five of eleven vehicles are sport utilities. Ford refuses to lap its own trucks the following year. The 1997 Michigan test results →
11. 1999Ford Police Interceptor The Crown Victoria is renamed, and Michigan splits its qualification standard into classes. Police package and special service become formal categories. The 1999 Michigan test results →

2000 – 2026 — The sedan disappears

Watch the colour of this era change: it ends without a single four-door saloon in the test. Told properly in the complete history, under The last great sedans and The year it stopped being a car.

1. 2000Chevrolet Impala 9C1 A front-wheel-drive police sedan replaces the Caprice — and out-laps the Police Interceptor around the road course. The 2000 Michigan test results →
2. 2001Grattan Raceway Testing moves to a two-mile road course — and an AM General Hummer is entered in the police category. The 2001 Michigan test results →
3. 2005Chevrolet Tahoe Two Tahoes stop within a quarter-foot of each other cold. After a heat soak, the special-service car needs twenty feet more. What a police package buys →
4. 2006Dodge Charger 5.7 HEMI 150 mph. The Caprice’s decade-old top speed record goes, and Chrysler is back at the front for the first time since the 1980s. The 2006 Michigan test results →
5. 2007Motorcycles enter Michigan begins testing them with the same procedure as the cars — and a BMW out-accelerates every car the programme has ever run. Watch: The police motorcycle The 2007 Michigan test results →
6. 2011Chevrolet Caprice PPV Back after fifteen years, built in Australia, and it beats everything in the test. The 2011 Michigan test results →
7. 2012The Panther ends No Crown Victoria. Ford brings six vehicles to replace one, including its first Police Interceptor Utility — and the brake test doubles in length, with three cars stopping inside 127 feet on it. The 2012 Michigan test results →
8. 2016–17The limiter, proved The same Charger needs 13.28 miles to reach 150 one year and 1.45 miles to reach 149 the next. Nothing about the car changed. How top speed stopped meaning anything →
9. 2018Police Responder hybrid and F-150 A hybrid returns 40 mpg where the next best manages 19 — and an F-150 reaches 60 mph quicker than both Tahoes. The 2018 Michigan test results →
10. 2019Ford Police Interceptor Utility 3.0 The first sport utility to run 150 mph, and the quickest vehicle of the year. Michigan also states in print that “pursuit rated” means nothing. Pursuit rated means nothing →
11. 2025Chevrolet Blazer EV The first test in the programme’s history with no police sedan of any kind — and the quickest vehicle in it has no engine. The 2025 Michigan test results →
12. 2026Ford Mustang Mach-E GT The badge returns after thirty-three years, electric, and stops from 60 mph in 122.45 feet — the shortest ever recorded here by a car. The police Mustang →