Ford long-lasting symbol of automotive law enforcement is slowly but surely becoming extinct across America.
The latest Crown Victoria casualty belongs to the Nevada Highway Patrol, who just retired their last unit according to News3 Las Vegas, something trooper Jason Buratczuk found “bittersweet”.
NHP interim chief, John O’Rourke shares the trooper’s feelings, saying that even he used to drive a Crown Vic back in the day, a car that even managed to push a semi at one point.
“It has plenty of room in the back seat for prisoners. The trunk area is large enough for us to put all our equipment,” added O’Rourke, while the NHP’s garage managed confirmed that it was a very reliable car.
Of course, the newer cars, such as the Dodge Chargers and Ford SUVs are a lot more fuel-efficient and modern, something the Crown Vic was never good at.
“We can take phone calls from dispatchers without having to pull over. And then when we initiate a traffic stop, we can initiate our lights right from the steering wheel.”
Still, more modern doesn’t necessarily mean more special.
“We have visitors come from all over the world. We had some German police officers come down to the office and wanted to trade some patches and get a tour of our vehicles. We had the brand new Chargers that just came in. They didn’t want to look at the Chargers. They wanted to look at the Ford Crown Victoria. I said, ‘You don’t want to check out the new Chargers?’ The German police officer said, ‘This is the iconic police car,” concluded the trooper.
