Page 399 - NIXBOOK

Speaking of graphics, I saw firsthand a significant evolution of police car graphics. Back in the 1990’s when I started, police car
lettering was very plain and basic,– everywhere across the country - with just simple block lettering. For example, when I first
got into police work in 1993 our cars had very simple and boring pin striping along with a couple catalog-ordered “POLICE”
decals for the doors. And that was the standard everywhere back then. Nothing too bold or fancy or large. Over the years it
changed, and police car graphics improved considerably.

And then along came computer-controlled vinyl and decal lettering and graphics and so police departments everywhere slowly
starting making the designs and colors on their police cars bolder and fancier, although for the first several years after this trend
slowly started a lot of agencies were reluctant to make big changes. I mention this only because this was one of the little changes
that I saw happen over the years, something that most people don’t think about or even really notice.
Eventually, I saw some of the trade and police magazines started having annual contests where sheriff’s departments and
municipal agencies could show off their new fleet graphics on their cars, and it then became the new norm for police cars to
have big colorful graphics and lettering all over them.
We had to keep our cars clean, and so the city council agreed it would be
prudent to get us a contract with a local car wash facility. Twenty-four years
into my career. So, yeah, I hand washed all of my patrol cars for the first 24
years, at the rate two or three times a month. So whenever I had a citizen or
reserve officer riding with me I’d be sure to offer them an opportunity: “Hay!
Ya ever wash a police car before?” and most were pretty agreeable to oblige.
Like the Ford Expedition I once had, my Tahoe had a huge amount of space
between the front seats and once again I was able to convince my sergeants to let me build another large center console storage
unit between the front seats. I had to work around the mobile computer this time, which took up a lot of valuable real estate.
Like my first version, this thing had a ton of room in there for all my loose items and gear. There was one lid that opened under
the silver clipboard, and behind the blue clipboard I had another lid that opened into another storage area. On top of that, just
barely visible in this picture, I mounted the thermal paper printer.

I also had some room underneath it all for two fire extinguishers, accessible from the passenger side. I wound up never using
either one of them, which was ironic since I specifically had two. Because I learned the hard way it really sucks trying to put out
a fire and run out of fire extinguisher. Which prompted me to snag a second one. Which I never used. More than one firefighter
got pretty excited when I showed them that set up; pictures were taken and notes made.