[geeks] Re: Cop Cars

[alex j avriette]

> You don't think a particular police organization couldn't have had the 
> car
> outfitted with such a device? Just about anyone with skill with tools 
> could
> install a supercharger.

In San Diego, there were at the time of my leaving (3 years ago) exactly 
3 supercharged police vehicles. All three were Caprices. At any rate, 
the reason for this was the extremely serious problem of street racing. 
1000-1500 people would show up in Mira Mesa every saturday night at 
midnight, and race. Many of the cars racing had aftermarket 
turbo/superchargers sometimes in addition to nitrous oxide injection. 
Nearly all were operating on racing slicks. It became impossible for 
cops to apprehend anyone at the races because the police vehicles were 
so poorly equipped to chase a "properly equipped" (for running I guess) 
street racer.

There was much discussion in public forums before this was done. People 
were worried the police would use it as an excuse to get into more 
pursuits. People worried that the police were "stooping to the level of" 
the (mostly) kids racing.

At any rate, there are a lot of objections to modifying police cars. 
Many of them are straight upkeep costs. Maintaining a turbocharged or 
supercharged vehicle takes more money and more time (and driver effort) 
than its naturally aspirated counterpart. It can cost $5,000 to install 
a forced induction system on your average production car. Sometimes 
more. Law Enforcement doesn't usually have an additional 25% the cost of 
a car to spend on making it faster. In California, the Highway Patrol 
purchases Camaro's and Mustangs for high speed patrol of the I-5 and 
I-15 freeways. It just isn't economical to supercharge a crown vic.

Alex