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 bought one city at a time. Told properly in the complete history, under The wagon, and the first thirty years.

These entries come from general automotive and police history rather than from a testing programme. Michigan began testing patrol cars in the 1950s, testing only the lowest bid; its comparative programme began in 1976. 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. Back in service after the 1900 riot; scrapped in 1905 by one account, 1917 by another. Watch: American Police Cars 1899–1932
2. 1905Motorcycle patrol New York buys two police motorcycles in June 1905, by one account; Harley-Davidson says its first police motorcycle went to Detroit in 1908. Cheaper than a car, and faster than most traffic. Watch: The police motorcycle
3. 1910sFord Model T Cheap enough for cities to buy: $850 in 1908, $440 by 1915. 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 The first V8 cheap enough for the low-priced class, by Hagerty’s account, introduced on 31 March 1932 from $460. Police and criminals could buy the same speed on the same day. 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 Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are killed on 23 May 1934 in a stolen 1934 Ford V8. A letter to Henry Ford praising the Ford, signed Clyde Barrow, reached the Ford Motor Company that April; The Henry Ford notes that handwriting analysts have questioned it. 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. 1930sPolice-oriented cars Plymouth begins pitching cars at police buyers, by Allpar’s account. A catalogued police package is still more than a decade away.
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 police package Ford calls it the first police package offered by any carmaker. From here a department can order the heavy-duty parts as a police package on a new car. Watch: The 1950 Ford 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 440 147 mph at Chrysler’s Chelsea Proving Grounds, according to Sanow and Bellah’s history of Chrysler police cars rather than a Michigan document. In the Michigan tests held here, no American police sedan goes faster until the 2006 Charger; an imported Volvo sedan matched it in 1998 and beat it in 2000, and a Camaro passed it in 1991. 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. The 1980 report dates the comparative programme to 1976; the books from 2018 on say the change came after quotations arrived four dollars apart, without a date. 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 the Buick and the Ford in the same test are eliminated for missing the acceleration minimums. 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 Two classes in one test. A Volare damaged on a warm-up lap is given the Aspen’s road-course score and still becomes the mid-size adjusted low bidder; the Gran Fury takes the full-size class. The 1980 Michigan test results → Watch: The Plymouth Fury
3. 1982Ford Mustang SSP After “specific interest expressed by a number of police agencies” in a smaller pursuit car, Michigan tests a twelfth car with Ford’s cooperation and does not publish its figures. The police Mustang → Watch: The Mustang SSP
4. 1983Ford Mustang 302 H.O. 132 mph, the fastest lap average and the shortest stop in the test — from a car that 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. 1992Governors in the footnotes Two Caprices carry “governors” that “limited the top speeds to what are shown” — and the top speed column starts to describe a setting as well as a car. The 1992 Michigan test results → How top speed stopped meaning anything →
8. 1993Mustang SSP, last test in these books The only cars in the lap table not marked as having anti-lock brakes, and slower than both Camaros to 60, to 100, on top speed and round the road course. The 1993 Michigan test results → Watch: The Mustang SSP
9. 1996Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 The last one runs 139 mph — and Ford submits a Crown Victoria without ABS for brake testing only. Beside the ABS car, it needs sixteen feet more. Sixteen feet → Watch: The Caprice 9C1
10. 1997No Caprice The first test since 1986 in the books held here without one, and five of eleven vehicles are sport utilities. The following year Ford’s sport utilities do not run the road course. The 1997 Michigan test results →
11. 1999Ford Police Interceptor The Crown Victoria is renamed, and the book gives the special-service trucks an appendix of their own. 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 The dynamics test 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 Across their first six stops two Tahoes average within a quarter-foot of each other. After a heat soak, the special-service car needs twenty feet more on average. What a police package buys →
4. 2006Dodge Charger 5.7 HEMI 150 mph, the best by an American police sedan in these books to that point, beating the 1994 Caprice’s 141.2; the HEMI Charger also leads the test to 60 and around Grattan. 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 had run to that point. Watch: The police motorcycle The 2007 Michigan test results →
6. 2011Chevrolet Caprice PPV Back after fifteen years, built in Australia, and it beats every other car 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 car braking now runs to twenty stops, with three cars stopping in 127 feet or less. The 2012 Michigan test results →
8. 2016–17The limiter at work The same Charger needs 13.28 miles to reach 150 one year and 1.45 miles to reach 149 the next. 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. 20192020 Ford Police Interceptor Utility 3.0 The first sport utility to run 150 mph, and the quickest vehicle on four wheels that year. The same book repeats, from the 2018 book, that “pursuit rated” has no sanctioning body. Pursuit rated: no sanctioning body →
11. 20222021 Ford Mustang Mach-E The first electric car in the Michigan books held here, and the Mustang badge back after twenty-nine years: 60 mph in 4.03 seconds, and 3.93 a year later, the quickest by a car in these books. Its 2026 GT version has a projected stop from 60 of 122.45 feet, the shortest by a car under the twenty-stop procedure. The police Mustang →
12. 2024Chevrolet Blazer EV The first test in the Michigan books held here with no police sedan of any kind — and the two quickest cars in it, the Blazer EV and the Mustang Mach-E, have no engine. The 2024 Michigan test results →