Page 387 - NIXBOOK

Here the sergeant is mad that the fancy mechanical-
display portable radar display board on the parked car
was stuck, showing “76” mph instead of “25”, which I
thought was absolutely hilarious.

Over the years we also drove Ford Explorers, front wheel
drive Chevy Impalas and Malibu’s, Chevy Tahoes, and
eventually Ford Interceptors SUV’s. I drove a few
different models of Ford Crown Victorias over the years.
Our cars used to be all white but one day when the
sergeant ordered a couple replacement ones he checked
the wrong box on the form and several months later we
got one white car and, uh, one dark blue one delivered. We decided the blue color actually looked better so from then on they
were all ordered in blue for many years, except Ford and Chevrolet had different ideas about what shade of blue to offer, and
every other year or so their color would be just a little bit different from previous years’ models. Most people couldn’t tell the
difference, though. Then we had a city central purchasing agent who was put in charge in charge of ordering cars for us and one
year he marked the wrong color box on the form and when we got our first SUV, a large Ford Expedition, it was black instead of
blue. Once we got over our shock we decided that black was better than blue and so eventually all of our new patrol vehicles
were ordered in black, which is pretty much always a standard color and not subject to tone variation from year to year like the
blue ones were. This photo is from 1991: 2 years before I got hired.

When my turn finally came up to get a brand new vehicle, I had the good fortune to be assigned a totally new kind of patrol
vehicle; an extra large Ford Expedition SUV. We only got one, and in a highlight of my career, I was the one who got it. It was a
radical change from our usual patrol cars. We needed a big vehicle to tow the new police boat, which was bigger and heavier
than the old model. Unfortunately the general public did not agree with our line of thinking; those new Expedition models had
only been out for a couple of years and the few out on the roads were the super expensive top of the line luxury models, driven
mostly by rich folks on Bainbridge Island. So everybody just assumed our police model also cost $60,000 dollars and had the
leather seats and upgraded everything. But it didn’t! It was a stripped down version with no carpeting or extra features other
than the lights and siren and police radio. But it did have a nice heavy duty push bar on the front bumper.
So I had to answer a lot of people’s
indignant and accusatory inquiries
about why the police department was
spending so many tax dollars on a police
car, and I had to explain the utilitarian
aspects and advantages of the 4x4 SUV
vs. a regular police sedan and eventually
as more police SUV’s started showing up
at other police departments and
replacing the usual sedans, people began
to understand and the public perception
changed to general acceptance.