Corey Gillet

Doing an awesome job brother! Much better than I am personally capable of, and you're just getting better and better at it each day! Though if you'd like, I have some constructive feedback I can give regarding the cruisers which I spend most of my time around in person. My background on this subject matter is from my experiences with talking to Troopers in person throughout the state and Metro-Boston as well as on Social Media on a near day to day basis. Specifically regarding the Fleet. And I do apologize in advance for this very lengthy comment, however at the very least it'll inform you of this information that you may not be aware of, and that is my ultimate goal. These most recent cruisers that you are currently showcasing are a hybrid mix of, the now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities, and the Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities. BELLOW: Photograph example of your current cruisers. And to break that down further I'll include three photograph's that I recently captured for comparison between the three model cruisers. I'll identify what I think could be improved upon, at your own discretion of course, in three categories; Emergency vehicle lighting configuration, the decal (livery) & license plate configuration, and the antenna package In reality the, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities and the Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities have identical emergency vehicle lighting packages and that's not by chance. E-Troop, since the Mass. Turnpike (I-90) opened to the public in 1957, has always been a more independent Troop that had their equipment/cruisers paid for by the Mass. Turnpike Authority until 2009 when they were folded in Mass.D.O.T., at that point in time Mass.D.O.T. began to pay for their equipment/cruisers until May 2nd, 2018. The M.S.P.'s Fleet Section on the other hand is at the mercy of the state's yearly General Budget, meaning that less dollars are spent to acquire more cruisers overall. But with that history aside the point is that E-Troop has always traditionally had the best, newest, and latest equipment/cruisers. This includes emergency vehicle lighting packages as well. The reason the Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities have the same emergency vehicle lighting package is because that's literally E-Troop's 2018 model year cruiser order. And that means that Mass.D.O.T. paid for the equipment/cruisers, not the Massachusetts General Budget that the State Police's Fleet is constrained to. However following M.S.P. Colonel Gilpin's order to disband E-Troop and absorb the barracks, Troopers, and cruisers into their respective regional Troops, all current E-Troop cruisers were renumbered from their own numbering system to the Fleet's statewide cruiser numbering system. The 2018 model year cruiser order had already been placed though, so the M.S.P.'s Fleet Section took ownership of these, Mass.D.O.T. funded, cruisers when they were ultimately delivered to MHQ in Marlborough (The largest private dealer/company the procures and upfits commercial and government vehicle orders in Massachusetts). So with this wordy description aside, the lights are the same between the two differing model year cruisers. The decal configuration is a different story. Traditionally E-Troop has always done their decals differently than Fleet, and so much in fact that nearly every single decal (excluding the M.S.P. door patches) is placed differently on the, now defunct, E-Troop 2013 through 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities than the Fleet 2013 through 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities. The M.S.P.'s Fleet Section has acquired their Ford P.I. Utilities in a series of six Fleet wide orders and a few special occasion orders. The first being the 2013 model year order in all Whelen® emergency vehicle lighting packages, followed by an additional 2013 model year order this time in all Code 3® emergency vehicle lighting packages, the 2014 model year order was identical to the second 2013 model year order, the 2015 model year order came with a more refined and improved Whelen® emergency vehicle lighting package, the 2016 model year order was identical to the 2015 model year order except for the lack of fog light utilization, the 2017 model year order was identical to the 2016 model year order except for the antenna configuration, prisoner configuration, and addition of lime green high visibility yellow decals to all the doors and the liftgate jam. The special order occasions included Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section ("Truck Team") Ford P.I. Utilities, and the K-9 Section Ford P.I. Utilities which were all ordered separately of the Fleet orders. With the, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities, and the Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities they have pretty close to the same emergency lighting package that you have shown here in your photos, however there is some minor discrepancies. I'll address those as well as the decal discrepancies after I post these reference photographs for you to look at. (NOTE: Prior to this year the Fleet Section's 2015, 2016, and 2017 model year Ford P.I. all came equipped with the same emergency vehicle lighting packages, which included a minimal amount of emergency vehicle lighting that was instead smartly placed to maximize a great area of coverage to the motoring public.) BELLOW: Photograph of a, now defunct and renumbered, E-Troop 2016 model year Ford P.I. Utility. BELLOW: Photograph of a, now defunct and renumbered, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility. BELLOW: Photograph of a Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utility Now to address the minor discrepancies with your particular cruisers, and they're only really minor with the emergency vehicle lighting package. For loosely copying the look of a, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility you did a stellar job. The discrepancies that I address will be followed with photographs of your cruiser that have the exact emergency vehicle lighting products on the photograph with two colored arrows. The red arrow will indicate the discrepancy I am referencing, whilst the green arrows will point you to where the actual location of the emergency vehicle lighting product is in reality The issues I am seeing is with the placement of the Whelen® (Model# "LINV2B") LINV2™ V-Series™ Linear Super-LED® Lightheads on the Setina PB-400 Push Bumper. The use of Whelen® Ions in the upper crossbar of the Setina PB-400 Push Bumper in the 2013 model year style, those shouldn't be present and the proper lightheads to use would be the Whelen® (Model# "RVB03ZCR")TIR3™ Series Super-LED® Lightheads with a black "L" bracket designed to help mount the lighthead to the mid-crossbar of the Setina PB-400 Push Bumper (NOTE: They are vertical lightheads that are installed horizontally, this was done so that two different lightheads wouldn't need to be ordered, and what I mean by that is there are two of these exact same lightheads installed on the B-pillar's behind the front seats for side profile lighting out the rear door windows.). These same lightheads should also be vertically installed to the mid-section of the B-pillar's behind the two front seats so that may be be viewed from the rear door windows. The last part of the lighting that I noticed was your use and placement of the Whelen® (Model# "MPBB") Pioneer Micro™ Series, Super-LED® Work/Scene Lights, the purpose for these lightheads was to serve as fog lighting, prior to these debuting on the, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities they used many different brands of fog lighting with the most consistent being the German based Hella® product fog lighting. These lightheads are used independently of the emergency vehicle lighting packages as standalone white lights. BELLOW: Photograph examples in chronological order of the discrepancies that I addressed with the emergency vehicle lighting packages on your cruiser. Now to the second category that could be improved, and that is the decal (livery) & license plate configuration. This is what ultimately turns you cruiser into a "hybrid". Your placement of the half inch white prismatic 3M reflective tape on the bumpers and the liftgate dead on accurate to the Fleet Section's specifications for their 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities. However your mixing the Fleet specification MHQ product American flag decal on the liftgate with a Mass.D.O.T. specification way American flag on a red flag pole. These conflict the idea of the cruiser being a Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utility. The Fleet also has the MHQ product American flag more centered on that portion of the liftgate. If it were to be a, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility the half inch white prismatic 3M reflective tape on the front bumper would need to be lower to the skirt of the vehicle, as seen in my reference photograph, and the piece of reflective tape that underlines the "STATE POLICE" lettering on the liftgate would need to be removed as E-Troop's specifications did not have the "STATE POLICE" lettering underlined by the reflective tape. The "STATE POLICE" lettering and cruiser number on the fenders are crooked in addition to the front bumper reflective tape clipping into the fog lamp housing inserts, but that's logistically difficult to judge when designing the skin. The placement of the roof numbers on the Ford P.I. Utilities for the M.S.P. all around is on the liftgate's spoiler, not the roof, it is very odd. And the final decal discrepancy I noticed was with the Boston Strong ribbon decal on the liftgate's windshield, these decals were issued only once to all the M.S.P. cruisers following the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings as part of a general order from the Command Staff, no replacements were issued if the decals were to be damaged or removed. So the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities were all delivered without the decal, any cruiser that has the decal post the issuance order had it purchased and attached to the cruiser by the individual Trooper assigned it, and these instances are far and few in between. As for the license plates, it would appear you used "STATE OFFICIAL" plates that merged with the automatically generated San Andreas licence plate, I'll include an example M.S.P. 2007 series plate template that I've seen you use with success on other skins. There's also the missing Massachusetts Vehicle Inspection Decal, and the two miniature M.S.P. door patch decals on the front corner housings of the lightbar, but these are very minor. BELLOW: Photograph examples in chronological order of the discrepancies that I addressed with the decal (livery) & license plate configuration on your cruiser. The third and final thing that I noticed that could be improved is the antenna package. Depending upon what model year Ford P.I. Utility it is and who procured it will determine the antenna configuration. For this I will provide two reference photographs of a Fleet 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility, and a, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility so that you can reference either or going forward with the antenna package. Now if it's a Fleet Section or a Mass.D.O.T. purchased, now defunct, E-Troop model Ford P.I. Utility the antenna package is configured the same. And while there are Troopers who have Lo-jack antennas or differing antenna products, they still serve the same purpose. Each M.S.P. cruiser has a low-band ball spring mount whip antenna, an antenna for the Mobile Data Terminal (M.D.T.), and antenna for the car-to-car radio function, and an 800 MHz trunked radio system antenna. The antenna configuration for the Fleet 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utilities is the same as the antenna configuration for the, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities. They both have an ball spring mount whip antenna for the low-band radio on the driver's side rear quarter panel, a black Comtelco antenna for the car-to-car radio on the rear driver's side of the roof, a black and chrome Motorola nipple antenna for the 800 MHz trunked radio on the rear passenger's side of the roof, and a black puck antenna for the M.D.T. system on the center rear of the roof. The Fleet 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utilities have a chrome antenna in place for the 800 MHz trunked radio and that's the only difference, however what I'm referring to is your hybrid that is mixing the, now defunct, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility with the Fleet Section's 2018 model year Ford P.I. Utility. BELLOW: Photograph of a, now defunct and renumbered, E-Troop 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility. BELLOW: Photograph of a Fleet Section 2017 model year Ford P.I. Utility. Again you did an absolutely fantastic job with your cruisers and what you've had to work with brother! I hope all of this VERY wordy information helps you moving forward. My goal was to give you as much information as possible to work with but I didn't cover everything possible just some basics I noticed. Keep up the stellar work man! And if you have any questions whatsoever, or just want to learn more about the different model cruisers or equipment the M.S.P. has at the moment shoot me a comment or a message, I'm very passionate on this topic matter and I want nothing more, than to help out everyone I can. Have a restful evening Trooper Charles!