Any police-spec Maverick is awesome in my book! Those photos are jaw-droppingly fantastic, Strike. I love the 'lightbar' setup of that LA City Fire Department van in the second to last photo.

Stuff from the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society.

 

 

 

 

 

Topanga Canyon brush fire November 1973.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traffic Accident East Bound 10 FWY at the I 405 January 1972.

 

 

 

 

 

Traffic Accident 2nd and Hill Downtown L.A. March 1974.

 

 

Not really a police car but well... LAX Ops Ford Maverick December 1979.

 

Oh man. I wish we had that LAFD van and (presumably) Cadillac ambulance earlier on.

 

That stepvan/truck in the third photo down would make one cool NYC-EMS truck if ever modeled!

 

 

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While I'm on the subject...

 

 

 

 

 

 

That stepvan/truck in the third photo down would make one cool NYC-EMS truck if ever modeled!

 

 

 

LA Noire had an older International Metro KBM van. Some edits and maybe...

 

LA Noire had an older International Metro KBM van. Some edits and maybe...

 

Dammit, Strike. You always find a way to make threads better and better. xD

 

If someone would be willing to convert that truck, we'd have one hell of an ambulance, milk truck, and/or delivery van. 

Indeed. There was some dude who began converting LA Noire vehicles like a year or so ago but apparently he didn't have the great idea to make the KBM so in short we are in a dead end, as other times.

Hopefully one of these days someone will dive back into it. LA Noire has a wealth of unique cars to take advantage of, that's for sure.

 

The LA Noire ambulances would be cool to have as well. Just add a beacon light to the top and a mechanical siren on the fender and you've got greatness!

 

 

 

 

Hopefully someday, the Buick Ambulance is a beauty.

 

SCRTD (Los Angeles) Transit Police, 1987.

 

 

 

SCRTD - Exercise Drill for Toxic Emergency Spill. 5/22/1987. Note the Los Angeles County Sheriff Ford LTD on the right side.

It's a shame that more departments didn't make use of the Fox-bodied LTD; it was a great looking car IMO. Gotta love the Diplomat and Aerodynic, and I love how gigantic that portable radio is in addition.

 

It's also good to see that RTS-06 Bus; I was on one a few days ago.

Edited October 19, 201411 yr by FCV96

@strike: the first photo will be my new wallpaper 

@FCV96: that radio, Motorola MX300 series to be precise, is considered to be the most reliable, practically indestructible handheld radio ever made.Thanks to it's mass and metal cover you could physically neutralize like 50 people with it and dispatch the info to the station without problems

@strike: the first photo will be my new wallpaper

@FCV96: that radio, Motorola MX300 series to be precise, is considered to be the most reliable, practically indestructible handheld radio ever made.Thanks to it's mass and metal cover you could physically neutralize like 50 people with it and dispatch the info to the station without problems

Hahaha well it looks certainly solid, kind of like the Nokia 3310 of the police radios I guess. Do you guys know when were portable radios began to be used in law enforcement?

Hahaha well it looks certainly solid, kind of like the Nokia 3310 of the police radios I guess. Do you guys know when were portable radios began to be used in law enforcement?

 

Thanks for the info, LtFlash. Gotta love that durability - they don't make 'em like they used to! :D

 

According to policeny, the NYPD began to use portables in the mid 1960s [go to the bottom of the page]. http://www.policeny.com/radiocb1.html

 

I would think that it probably varied by agency, though the late 1960s is probably a good baseline.

 

 

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More candidates for that LA Noire International truck;

 

 

Edited October 20, 201411 yr by FCV96

FCV96 mentioned about 60's, in the beginning there were many issues with handhelds; short battery life, almost no range in the bldgs etc. = footpost in the projects was a hardcore thing to do, at least they could use radios as a deadly weapon (reverse air-mail) LOL. Radio comm is a good story for another topic xD

 

That van   it could be a TPF van! I wish we could take a footpost in Holland/Lower Easton and have a possibility to call such van for our prisoners.

Here's somethin' to read: http://www.tpfnypd.com/index.html

 

Behind The Iron Curtain, lol :D

 

 

Note the light bulb on that GAI sign

 

That lightbar, lol

 

An extremely rare pic showing rear tabs with the word 'STOP'. Was only used for a short period of time. 

 

Road police van (I love vans, you know)

 

Van with flood lights, no emergency lights or sirens,

Mobile HQ. Civili buses of this model are no longer used by today. 

 

And even that.

 

Edited October 22, 201411 yr by Hastings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lolz, he's playing chess.

 

As for the Vic, there was a "World's Wildest Police Chases" video that had a pursuit with a Russian acquired Vic and it was pretty neat. One of the older episodes, not sure if it's on Youtube.

As for the Vic, there was a "World's Wildest Police Chases" video that had a pursuit with a Russian acquired Vic and it was pretty neat. One of the older episodes, not sure if it's on Youtube.

Oh they are. I wish they were still in service. Back in 90's all gangsters were using Mercedes and BMW cars, and Crownvics were the only vehicles which could keep up with them :) Now they all are scrapped or out of  service due to bad condition, however, sometimes you can see something like that:

 

Edited October 22, 201411 yr by Hastings

As for the Vic, there was a "World's Wildest Police Chases" video that had a pursuit with a Russian acquired Vic and it was pretty neat. One of the older episodes, not sure if it's on Youtube.

 

I remember seeing that episode while watching reruns on Spike several years ago - that photo brought Sheriff John Bunnell's over-the-top narration right back to me! :D

 

Few years ago I happened to follow one guy at dedicated auto forum, where he described his adventure of buying and restoring K-5 Blazer. It was a long time ago and he had already sold it.

All rights belong to him but I don't think he would mind his car being observed by the real fans of classic vehicles. 

At first it was like:

After some painting and inner parts replacement:

With lights and siren installed on a car show (another nice car to the right)

 

Another one, K5 Blazer CUCV. In her other life served the U.S. embassy.

Licence plates from German Army base purchased specifically for that car. Nice envelope. 

 

Edited October 24, 201411 yr by Hastings

Behind The Iron Curtain, lol :D

 

That lightbar, lol

 

 

Gaz 24, right? nice looking car... Great post, I've been interested to look into the Russian police vehicles during the USSR yet never really took the time to start searching for anything. Just which is the difference between the yellow and white cars, I mean, are they from different agencies or stuff?

Gaz 24, right? nice looking car... Great post, I've been interested to look into the Russian police vehicles during the USSR yet never really took the time to start searching for anything. Just which is the difference between the yellow and white cars, I mean, are they from different agencies or stuff?

On the third pic the background vehicle lacks lights and siren. Serves as a transport for traffic police volunteers. All cars on the pics belong to the police force aka militia, and all but three - to the Road police dept (GAI).

 

Till 1968 there was no unified color scheme or beacon regulation, however the most commonly used was blue-with-a-red-stripe. Some were using a single light bulb, some installed red-and-blue lights. After that a yellow-and-blue livery was established, but again there were differences among the country. Cars turned grey and subsequently white during 80's (no reliable info on the exact date), and in 90's it was all sorted out: red and blue beacons were assigned exclusively for road police and white-and-blue became the main painting scheme.