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Police car questions, answered

19 questions people ask about American police cars, each answered in a few sentences and linked to the evidence.

The cars

What was the fastest police car ever?

It depends what you count. The classic-era figure is the 1969 Dodge Polara’s 147 mph, recorded at Chrysler’s own Chelsea proving ground according to Sanow and Bellah’s history of Chrysler police cars. In the Michigan tests the first American police sedan to beat it was the 2006 Dodge Charger, at 150 mph, though an imported Volvo S70 T5 sedan had run 153 in 2000. The fastest sedan in the Michigan record is the Chevrolet Caprice 6.0, at 156 mph in a retest for the 2015 book, and the fastest vehicle of any kind is the Chevrolet Camaro B4C, at 160 mph in 2000. From 2003 Michigan states that the vehicles it tested had speed limiters fitted, so the later figures may be limiter settings. The records page lists them with their caveats.

How fast was the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor?

Not as fast as its reputation. Its best top speed in each of the thirteen Michigan tests from 1999 to 2011 was between 128 and 130 mph, and the fastest any rear-drive Crown Victoria ran in these books was 135 mph, in 1996. The books record a speed limiter in every one of those thirteen years. Every Crown Victoria test is on its own page.

What does P71 mean on a Crown Victoria?

It is Ford’s sales code for the police car, as the Michigan books print it on their vehicle description pages: P-72 in the 1990 and 1992 books, P-71 in 1994, and P71 for the police car in every later vehicle description the site has transcribed, through the 2011 book. The books call the car a Crown Victoria up to 1998 and a Police Interceptor from the 1999 book. What the books record about the car has the detail.

What was the Mustang SSP?

SSP stands for Special Service Package, Ford’s name for its police Mustang. Michigan tested Mustangs from 1982 to 1993, and from 1983 to 1990 a Mustang had the highest top speed, the quickest times to 60 and 100 mph and the best lap in every test it ran. From 1991 a Camaro beat it. Every Mustang test is on one page, with the video and the article.

What is a Camaro B4C?

B4C is the name collectors use for the police Camaro, which Michigan tested from 1991 to 2002 and recorded at 160 mph in 2000, the highest figure in the archive. The Michigan books themselves call it simply a Camaro and print Chevrolet’s sales code as 1FP87. The Camaro page sets out which of its figures were recorded with a limiter.

What was the “dog car”?

The nickname for the 1980 Dodge St. Regis in California service, told in the St. Regis video. The St. Regis Michigan tested that year was built to a different specification: Chrysler’s own 1980 catalogue marks its 360 engine “(Not available in California)”, and it ran 122.7 mph. The St. Regis in Michigan has both tests.

When did SUVs replace police sedans?

In the 2019 Michigan test a Ford Police Interceptor Utility with the 3.0 EcoBoost was the fastest vehicle in the field, at 150 mph. And from the 2024 book Michigan tested no police sedan of any kind, for the first time in the books held here. The complete history tells how it came to that.

What was the first electric police car Michigan tested?

The first battery-electric car in the books held here is a 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E, in the 2022 book; Zero electric motorcycles had been tested from 2016 to 2018. The police Mustang article follows the Mach-E to 2026.

The Michigan test

What is the Michigan State Police vehicle test?

Every year the Michigan State Police take the coming year’s police vehicles to a proving ground and measure acceleration, top speed, braking and laps of a road course, and grade how well each works as a place to do the job. The results are published, and agencies across the country use them. It is a purchasing exercise as well as a test: in the books that print the method, the scores adjust each maker’s bid. This site holds the results of 48 of those tests: every year from 1978 to 2026 except 1979, whose surviving file has the method but no results. How the test works explains what changed along the way.

Who started the Michigan police car tests?

Michigan’s books from 2018 say it began testing patrol cars in the 1950s, one car at a time against its purchasing specification. The comparative, scored programme came later: the 1980 book says it was developed in 1976 by the department’s Policy Development and Evaluation Section, with the state’s purchasing division. The 1996 book credits three officers, Sgt. Bill McFall, F/Lt. Curtis L. VanDenBerg and Sgt. David B. Storer, with having originated it. Who actually started the tests has the evidence.

Are police car top speeds real?

Not always. From the 1992 book Michigan began marking some top speeds as recorded with a governor or speed limiter fitted, and from the 2003 bulletin it states that the vehicles tested have one. A limited figure may be the limiter’s setting rather than the most the car could do. When the top speed stopped being a measurement dates the change year by year.

Words and codes

What does “pursuit rated” mean?

Less than it sounds. The 2018 Michigan book says there is no sanctioning body behind the term and no specific performance criteria attached to it, that “pursuit capable” is the better phrase, and that neither the Michigan State Police nor the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department can award it. The article quotes the books.

What is a police package?

A factory option that turned an ordinary car into a police car: heavier suspension, cooling, charging and brakes, often with a certified speedometer ordered as a separate option. It was running gear, not bodywork, so it rarely showed from outside. Ford says its 1950 package was the first offered by any carmaker; Chevrolet followed in 1955, Dodge’s first complete package came in 1956 and Plymouth’s in 1957. What is a police package car goes through it.

What is the difference between a police package and a special service vehicle?

The meaning has changed over the years. In the early 1990s books the special service package cars included the fast two-doors, the Mustangs and Camaros, alongside a Caprice station wagon. In later books Michigan puts special service vehicles in a separate section headed with a warning that they are not engineered for high-speed or pursuit driving. What a police package actually buys shows the difference on the brake sheet.

What do A38, 9C1 and SSP mean?

They are the three best-known police package codes: A38 for Chrysler’s Dodges and Plymouths, 9C1 for Chevrolet, and SSP for Ford’s Special Service Package Mustang. The option codes page explains each and the common mistakes about them.

Collecting

How can I tell if a police car is genuine?

Not from the paint, the spotlight or the roof light, which can be added to any car in a weekend. What counts is the code on the identification tag, the factory hardware that is hard to add, the scars left where equipment was removed, and above all the paperwork. Documentation settles it; nothing else does. How to identify a genuine police package car sets out the method.

How many police cars are there in America?

The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated, from a national survey, that local police departments operated 343,758 four-wheeled vehicles in 2013, 220,779 of them marked. The count covers local police departments only. 343,758 police cars breaks it down.

The early history

What was the first police car in America?

By the usual account, an electric patrol wagon delivered to the police in Akron, Ohio, in 1899, with a top speed of 16 or 18 mph depending on the account. Boston’s police department says its car, placed in service in July 1903, was the first automobile used as a police cruiser in the United States. The complete history starts there.

What was the first factory-built police car?

The 1950 Ford police package usually gets the title, and Ford claims it. Hagerty dates Ford’s package to 1949, and General Motors calls Chevrolet’s 1955 package the first factory-installed one. Either way, Ford was selling a police package five years before Chevrolet. The 1950 Ford video tells the story.