History Lets see some period police cars

I'm amazed that all the Arcadia '57 Chevys are all Bel-Airs, with full wheel covers no less! The black Radar Wagon has dog dish caps, and since it doesn't wear the louvers on the front fenders, seems to be a 210 model.

Every other '57 Cop Car shown here (and every one I've ever seen a pic of) is a lowly 150 model.

Your California tax dollars were at work even back then! How much more money were the Bel Airs over the 150s, even with the fleet discount I'm sure they got? With a fleet that big, I bet they could have gotten two or three more 150s for the price.

Awesome pics. What is it about service and work vehicles that is so much more interesting than other vehicles from the time period?

I don't have pics, but while my dad was an Industrial Engineer for AMC, he spec'd out a couple of cop cars for a sheriff "down south": 2-seat AMXs.
And I know a guy that had a '68 Road Runner, 426 Hemi, Auto, Dana 60 with 3.23 gears (this is a car I saw, not heard about). It was unrestored, but complete, and he had a pretty good collection of Mopars. He had the car and we were looking it over, and he was trying to figure out why the door skins, top of the hood and deck lid were painted white while the rest of the car was dark green. The body panels were body color in the jambs and undersides, but the tops were painted white--they weren't replacements from a white car.
It had a couple unknown brackets in the interior, and several extra holes in the dash. Under the hood, it had the 2x4 intake, wrinkle-coat valve covers, but an extra alternator on what looked like a factory bracket. More interestingly, it had small access plates on the valve covers over each rocker arm, painted wrinkle-coat and held on with four small sheetmetal screws to make adjusting the valves quick and easy without removing the valve cover (a pain, with the power booster there).
The more we talked, the more I thought it was fitted out like a cop car. He got curipous and tracked the car's history to the second owner, who bought it at a police auction. At the time he didn't have the original documentation, but the second owner told him it was used by a Sheriff as a pursuit vehicle.
Unfortunately, he sold the car to raise funds, and the guy who restored it just put it back as another '68 Hemi Road Runner, rather than the really unique piece of history it was.

-Brad

 

I think this may be the coolest thread i have read yet. great pics!

 

Original old school Police ride.........

 

Portland Police Paddy wagon

 

St Johns (North Portland) sometime in the 1960s

 

This '57 was parked outside the Tunica, Ms. Police station in 2003.

 

Seen this one in San Fran. Now thats a classic!!!!! ETHER

 

I think that's the early 70's...those two look like '73-74 Gran Torino cop cars.

 

Here's a few of my Father who was an early New Jersey State Trooper.......rode a horse and a motorcycle before graduating to using a patrol car!!

CB

 

My favorite by far, I love Edsels.

 

Way OT not vintage but this is THE COOLEST Poliza car ever

 

wow, great thread...no wonder I ain't gettin nuthin done around here...

I had a '65 Catalina detective's cruiser for a daily driver from '98 until '04...I enjoyed taking it up to 100 mph now and then, but I don't miss the manual steering and manual all drum brakes in a yacht like that!

 

Does Roscoe P. Coltrane's car count????

 

60 chevy cop car sales brochure

 

Shelbyville PD

 

Damn...he's got at least 36 rounds of extra ammo on that belt. Probably more. Wonder what they were expecting to go up against? Pic looks too early for mobsters. My grandfather was a Cook County Sheriff for a while during Prohibition (Cook County, Chicago). They issued him a 1911-model .45, and brass knuckles. We still have the knuckles.

-Brad

 

One like this?

 

Bunch of pics from Detriot PD

 

More Detroit Pd

 

More Detroit

 

Police on Harleys

 

look at the battery strapped to the frame wow!!!!! some one should make some of the
traffic violator stickers id be in for a couple ...jeffrey

 

"...and Milner, the front of this...whatever it is, looks a little low"

"Oh no officer, 12 inches, just like the law says. Now you can measure it, if you like."



(great pics. Thanks for posting)




6narow

 

Somewhere in Orange ca......