Text by Patrick Bell.
I have always been a fan of film noir style of movies and the old cop show reruns on TV, so this feature has been very interesting to me. I did not realize how many departments used two door sedans for patrol cars. I wonder what the rationale was, or was it just purely the low bid system? Maybe they did not transport prisoners in the patrol cars? Anyway, we have a good selection of real (not Hollywood) police cars for your viewing pleasure.
Above is a Kentucky State Trooper with a V8 powered ’57 Chevrolet One-Fifty utility sedan or 2 door sedan. I can’t quite tell if there is a back seat in this one. Maybe some were the “business coupe” body style to have room for gear.
A ’53 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Another puzzle; why the mid level trim? Officer comfort? The six cylinder would not make a good pursuit car, maybe that is why it was apparently assigned to the weight station. They only went after trucks.
A ’49 Ford Tudor with the Florida Highway Patrol. There were three other officers in the car, so this one was equipped for passengers.
This is the body style I recall, a V8 powered ’56 Ford Mainline Fordor Sedan with the Oakland, California Police Department. Behind it was a ’54 Chevrolet, and since it had a spotlight it was likely another police car. Across the street was a ’49 Ford Custom Fordor Sedan.
Another V8 powered ’56 Ford Mainline Fordor Sedan, this one with the Virginia City, Nevada Police Department. It was still running snow tires, and was at least three years old in this image. Parked at the curb were a ’59 Buick Electra 225 4 door hardtop, and behind it a ’59 or ’60 Studebaker Lark 4 door sedan.
We are back in Missouri with a ’60 Dodge Matador 2 door hardtop. I have to wonder how a hardtop fits in the equation. Perhaps they were looking for the power, handling and comfort found in a large car. This was the largest of the Dodge’s and no 2 door sedan was offered. There was a 4 door sedan version behind the pole on the hill in the background.
This image was shot in Clear Lake, Iowa, by Patrolman Dean Kemmerer with the Iowa Highway Patrol. He was assigned to this ’59 Ford Custom 300 Business Sedan or Tudor Sedan, and they were the second units on the scene of the plane crash on February 3rd, 1959 that claimed lives of Buddy Holly and his colleagues. Across the street was another police car, a ’58 Ford Custom 300 Fordor Sedan. It belonged to the Clear Lake Police Department.
A close to new ’59 Dodge Coronet 2 door sedan with the California Highway Patrol. This was the least expensive Dodge and was available with up to a 383 V8 with up to 345 horsepower.
Another close to new ’59 model, this one a Ford Custom 300 Fordor Sedan with the Illinois State Police. It had a speed check meter on the roof, which does not seem large enough to see until you were right on top of it.
This was Chief Howard Diehl of the Altamont, New York Police Department with his ’62 Plymouth Savoy 4 door sedan squad car. The photo is dated July 6th, 1962. These were available with a V8 up to 361 cubic inches.
The Baltimore Police Department’s Safety Patrol car was a ’60 Ford Ranch Wagon 2 door. Ford offered a “Police Interceptor” 352 V8 with 300 horsepower that was available only to police departments.
There is not much to go on for location on this image. A few clues; the Skelly station in the background, but there were lots of those, what I can read on the car badge is “Jefferson County”, and there are many of those, and the partial license plate on the right edge looks like a Colorado issue. The “RV” on the license plate was coded to Jefferson County, Colorado, where the seat is Golden. That is as close as I can get. The Dealership management is passing the keys to this small fleet of ’64 Ford Custom 2 doors probably to the county officials. The unit in the foreground was equipped with one of the big block engines, possibly the Police Interceptor 390 V8.
A ’63 Plymouth Savoy 4 door sedan with the Milwaukee Police Department. Mounting the roof beacon and siren on a rack seems different, I guess they did not want to drill holes in the roof.
The Montana Highway Patrol was doing some airport duty in a ’66 Dodge Polara 4 door sedan. This Polara was the least expensive full size Dodge and was available with the new 440 V8.
This is a representative of the Chicago Police Department, a ’72 Dodge Polara 4 door sedan. It was the least expensive and most popular full size Dodge that year, perhaps because of the fleet sales. It was also available with the 440 V8. A green ’70 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe was passing through the intersection in the background.
In 1971 and ’72 the Alabama Highway Patrol purchased 132 AMC Javelins with a 401 V8 to use as pursuit cars, which was at least a decade before the Ford Mustangs began their time in police duty. This ’71 model was hard at work, on its way somewhere in a hurry. Jason Shafer talked about this chapter of the Javelin story a while back at CC.
Thanks for joining us and to all good day!
Movies and TV often showed both cops and robbers driving Nashes. In real life cops drove Dodges and Fords, and robbers drove Fords.
I don’t know why Nash bothered to pay for the product placement, since it wasn’t trying to sell cars to real cops. Nash didn’t even offer many “heavy duty” option packages for taxi and police service. Most other makers, including Studie and Hudson, did offer those options and tried hard to satisfy fleet users.
The “Virginia City”, pic looks like an out take from a movie or show.
Speaking of movies and tv featuring Nashes as cop car, here one screenshot from the Adventures of Superman with George Reeves.
https://imcdb.org/vehicle_509171-Nash-Ambassador-5265-1952.html
Ha, I was going to say that the CHP never used two doors, except for the Fox Mustangs, but the ‘59 Dodge proves me wrong. Of course I was only a toddler then. Actually I have seen some full-size Bronco and Blazers in law enforcement duty in California, maybe even CHP. And there are truck safety inspection pickups that are 2 door regular cab.
Is that a Kaiser photobombing the background of the Oakland PD Ford picture? Cruising it’s corporate home town.
The CHP also used Camaros for some time.
Yeah, I forgot about those. They seemed in limited use, Southern California only, compared to the Mustangs that were everywhere for a while, and even used by San Jose PD and perhaps other cities.
In 1963 my dad purchased a 1958 Ford two door coupe, former vehicle of the Ohio Highway Patrol, at an auction. It had the “Thunderbird engine”, was spartan inside, and had a spotlight, which was a lot of fun for two adventurous brothers, ages 11 and 24. My dad had the car for two years until he got his other car fixed.
There were in fact NASH police cars .
Time was you could buy an old police cruiser with good tires and working AC for $300, no one wanted them back then .
I surely miss the white steering wheels, very nice to have on hot sunny days .
The thought of a Chevy ‘babbit pounder’ i6 going anywhere in a hurry makes me smile .
-Nate
If I’m not mistaken, by ’53 Chevy had a proper full pressure oiling system on the 235. Hurry had to wait til ’55 though.
The Illinois “speed check” photo has popped up on my Facebook groups, sometimes mistakenly described as radar equipment. It was a calibrated speedo, so—at highway speeds—civilian cars could follow a few car lengths behind it and compare the indicated speed with the actual speed per the police indicator.
It still surprises me, reading late-1950s Popular Mechanics, how many mph off tested cars’ speedometers often were….not just a trivial one or two.
p.s. Here in the 21st century, it’s interesting to go to oldcarbrochures.com–or to peek on eBay—and peek at Detroit’s “police car package” literature.
Two doors make quite a bit of sense, especially for Highway Patrol cars, as they weren’t all that likely to be hauling folks to jail. And if they did, there was no way for them to get out! 🙂
And the incarceration rate back then was a tiny fraction of what it became in more recent decades. It exploded starting in the 1980s.
Great collection!
Looks like the Fordland picture was taken in Lakewood, Colorado. Lakewood is in Jefferson County, and Fordland was located at 11000 W. Colfax Ave. The sign in this advertisement below matches the one in the photo, and the topography of the area matches as well.
The man second-to-left could be Jefferson Co. Sheriff Harold E. Bray. The image on the right below is from the Golden History Museum’s photo archive – it’s identified as Sheriff Bray’s 1964 campaign image. To me, it looks like the same person:
That 352 must have been available to the general public a mate of mine had a 59 Ford with 352 it was a NZ assembly car and our police were using UK ford Zephyrs at the time not US models, that car could get up and go but it did not steer or stop very well police must have got better suspension,
the last US ford my policeman uncle had was a 46 Ford coupe replaced in 52 by a MK1 Zephyr, replaced in 58 by a MK2 which was due for replacement when he retired so he bought it and was still driving it in the early 70s.
’59 CHP must be a resto or maybe movie car. License plate is civilian issue, state vehicles had the letter “E” (exempt from road taxes) in a diamond.
Just as with drag racing cars, the 2-door post sedan is the lightest body, which would improve acceleration.
It’s also the cheapest body, which is thoughtful when you’re spending the taxpayers’ money!
Ontario Provincial Police radar 1967.