New High-Tech LAPD sedans

[LAflyer]

LAPD will be field testing some new Chevy Caprice PPV sedans as part of its future technology project.

Vehicles feature, automated license plate readers, GPS tracking tied the CAD system to enable dispatching the closest unit, and infrared night vision camera. Also gone is todays Dell MDC replaced by an integrated built in touchscreen display unit.

Here is a video:
TRANSLOGIC 55: LAPD Chevy Caprice PPV - Translogic

Chevy is a finalist to supply the city 20,000 vehicles over 5-years.

As a side note, the LASD recently ran the Caprice PPV through the paces as its annual vehicle evaluation program with the Chevy overall scoring the highest of 16 tested models this year.
For that report: http://www.la-sheriff.org/sites/car-test/2011.pdf

 

[karldotcom]

I will buy that the Caprice accelerates faster than the rest of the cars, because it has a 6.0 V8 engine...but I will eat this report if it really tested out at 18mpg as stated on page 174 of the document. That has to be an error, or they didnt drive it enough.

The Australian car it is based on gets 12 mpg city.....so it should do even worse with So Cal grade gas and smog equipment. Maybe 15 mph tops as it should be 7% better than the Ethanol version.

 

[DPD1]

Looks cool... Hate to ask the price. Looks like they had two low profile antennas, but that's probably just for basic demo.

 

[brianearlspilner]

Interesting. I guess the Dodge Charger ain't cutting it for LAPD and LASD. LASD still keeping their Crown Vics here.

 

[LAflyer]

I don't know what the LAPD thought about the Charger, however I know the LASD has noted reliability, driver comfort and visibility issues with the model.

 

[brianearlspilner]

I remember a couple years back that El Monte PD blew a few engines on their Chargers after 60,000 miles of use. Wish I still had the article....

 

[GrandpaFrank]

Interesting, I thought the police cars already had GPS locators? You mean to tell me, dispatch doesn't know where the units are unless someone tells them so?

 

[K6CDO]

Interesting, I thought the police cars already had GPS locators? You mean to tell me, dispatch doesn't know where the units are unless someone tells them so?

Depends on the department. AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) is often a component of the mobile data package in a patrol car. San Diego Sheriff has GPS AVL.

Some other departments don't because the union objected that the GPS amounts to 'spying' on the officers in the car. It's amazing how an officer down/ shots fired situation where the dispatcher can locate the officer's vehicle will change that perception in a hurry.

 

[Dann]

Wow,It does not seem to long ago when a 1 way radio was high tech.

 

[KMA367]

I remember a couple years back that El Monte PD blew a few engines on their Chargers after 60,000 miles of use. Wish I still had the article....

From the El Monte City Council Agenda, 4/6/2010:

"Dear Mayor and City Council:

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE CITY COUNCIL:
Approve an amount not to exceed $285,000.00 to purchase 10 new police cars...

"...[W]e currently have 19 black and white police cars and 2 Crime Prevention Units dedicated to our patrol fleet. These 21 cars are driven 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by our 63 patrol officers.

"We have seven (7) Ford Crown Victoria vehicles which have over 100,000 miles. Because of their age and high mileage, these vehicles are now spending more time in the repair shop rather than patrol. This creates a shortage of vehicles for our officers and an additional unbudgeted expenditure in maintenance.

"With rumors that Ford was no longer going to manufacture their Ford Crown Victoria, in 2006 we purchased five (5) Dodge Chargers. Although these vehicles are newer and have an average mileage of 62,556, we have had to replace the engines on every vehicle. At the time of the engine replacement, many of these vehicles were out of warranty so we had to absorb the costs. Although these vehicles were popular with their looks and advertised as the replacement for the Ford Crown Victoria, it appears that they were never manufactured for police work...

"...t is recommended that 10-8 Retrofit, Inc., be approved as a sole source vendor to install the equipment to ensure the equipment installation in the new vehicles is consistent with our existing vehicles."​

 

[brianearlspilner]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Thank you KMA!

 

[911jason]

Interesting, I thought the police cars already had GPS locators? You mean to tell me, dispatch doesn't know where the units are unless someone tells them so?

Depends on the department. AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) is often a component of the mobile data package in a patrol car. San Diego Sheriff has GPS AVL.

Some other departments don't because the union objected that the GPS amounts to 'spying' on the officers in the car. It's amazing how an officer down/ shots fired situation where the dispatcher can locate the officer's vehicle will change that perception in a hurry.

LAPD does not currently utilize GPS for tracking their units. It's been my understanding that this is due to the LAPPL (union) fighting it.

 

[KMA367]

LAPD does not currently utilize GPS for tracking their units. It's been my understanding that this is due to the LAPPL (union) fighting it.

AFAIK, the only time the Protective League has taken a position even somewhat related to AVLs was in 2001 when they were one of the supporters of State Senator Brulte's SB 27 which (had it passed, but it didn't) would have provided $100 million in technology grants for city & county LEAs, including for AVL systems, but except for a few agencies, the specific equipment per agency wasn't identified.

ftp://leginfo.public.ca.gov/pub/01-02/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_27_cfa_20010320_141605_sen_comm.html - (page 2)

For the recent past and the foreseeable future, I imagine it's all about the lack of money for such stuff.

 

[911jason]

Hmmm... guess that was all office BS I had been hearing then...

=)

 

[KMA367]

Hmmm... guess that was all office BS I had been hearing then...

Ahh, but Jason, you're 681 miles and 35 years closer to that good ol' Comm Div BS than I am, other than the occasional anonymous emails that fall my way or what I can dig up thru Google or Ebay! You may well be right.

 

[1234567890]

Have spoken with some friends and the consensus is the Chargers and Caprices are both garbage. Chargers are not built on a full frame, they say have fun trying to take it over a curb. Caprices have crappy brakes, go Code 3 and I am told they go all the way to the floor by the 4th or 5th red light.

 

[kg4icg]

I wonder if you guys know the new Ford Taurus cruiser has the same hp rating but only a 3.5 liter v6, and it isn't a slouch by any means.

http://www.themustangnews.com/content/2010/03/2011-ford-taurus-police-interceptor-revealed/

 

[N4GKS]

FWD is terrible for police work.

 

[kg4icg]

They are awd, basically a SHO with enhancements.

 

[gman65]

Ford Options

Not much mention of the Fords in the thread. They have their own marketing effort:

http://www.ford.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/

I'm not in a position to know, but I would expect Ford to make a strong effort not to loose market share after several years of little competion. Their business sense seems to be better than the others these days.