Page 392 - NIXBOOK

The halogen bulb lightbars were replaced with new, strobe bulb models. They were about a 250 % brighter.

When my patrol vehicle needed mechanical work done on, the routine was that I’d borrow one of the spare vehicles we’d keep
in stock or use other officers’ vehicles if they were on vacation or days off, so it’s no exaggeration to say that I drove several
dozen different ones over the years. I also on occasion used our departments’ various unmarked patrol cars and undercover cars.
I drove so many police cars that early on I decided to stop adjusting the driver seats to reach the pedals – since I was the shortest
guy on the department and every other officer had their seats pushed further back from the steering wheels I figured it would
just be easier for me to adapt to their cars, so I learned to drive with just the tip of my foot on the accelerator and as I got used
to it I became comfortable driving that way all the time.
Most of the time our fleet of cars all looked pretty much the same. I remember one night when I was responding to a 911 dispatch
from the office; I ran out the back door of the PPD to the parking lot and remotely unlocked my car and jumped into my blue
Crown Vic as another officer right behind me unlocked his and got in and then we both stopped in confusion as we realized we
had jumped into each other’s car by mistake. It actually took me several seconds to process the fact the seat felt a little different
and the red map light was a little different, and when I looked over at my partner I could see a look of befuddlement on his face
as he was trying to reconcile why “his” car didn’t quite seem right either. Actually, that happened more than once.
Like most other police departments, our sergeants got to drive unmarked police cars. Sometimes the cars were completely
different colors (like silver or gray) but they always had a full complement of red and blue lights hidden in the grill and on the
dashboard and strobes in the corner lights. If you look real close, the spotlight on the car above has a special feature; a back lens
that would flash blue, for a bit of extra visibility at night. Optional on/off, of course.

We were fortunate in that each officer got their own assigned car. Some larger departments couldn’t afford that many cars so
the officers would share; a practice called a “motor pool” that nobody liked, because the cars would all get eventually trashed
inside and out and motor pool vehicles never last as long as personally assigned cars, which we had to remind our city council
members of several times over the years when they thought they had come up with a great way to try and save money. Now
because the vehicles were assigned to us, we got to drive them home and use them for commuting. And the city paid for the gas
of course, so having a company car to use was a very nice benefit that we all greatly appreciated.
For a police officer, their patrol car is essentially their office. It was typical for the officers to load up the passenger seat with
gear and extra equipment of all kinds, but I usually tried to keep my seat clear for reserve officers or civilian riders that I
frequently had. Which made my custom center console in the Ford so handy; I could easily stuff my ticket books and notebooks
and jacket in there, but I also usually had some sort of a small organizer thing to hold pens, pens, a ticket book, a camera, a pair
of black leather gloves, hand sanitizer, police badge stickers for kids, snacks, a municipal code reference book, extra pens, some
water bottles, and other misc. things.