Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of American Police Cars (Crestline)

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In your rear-view mirror, the sight of one of these vehicles can make your heart beat faster, your ears burn with a little fear, cause your eyes to race to the speedometer, and bring those long forgotten lessons from driver's education flooding back to haunt you on how bad a driver you really are. That fear-bearing vehicle with red or blue lights blinking is the squad car. Ever since the automobile came into play, law enforcement has looked to cars as a way to get to a call, or take care of other problems, especially traffic partol and accident investigation. Edward Sanow is America's foremost authority on police vehicles having studied and written a number of volumes on individual makes over the past few years. For the first time a comprehensive view of American police cars has been compiled. This book will be recognized as the acme of such material. Made up largely of original photography by the individuals, police and sheriff departments, or the manufacturers. Sanow provides more information to these 1,000 plus black and white photos than just the department, year, make, and model. Unlike some other volumes where the author is writing about police cars like any other subject, Sanow knows and researches each entry. Specifications, engine sizes, and indiividual department requirements are often included in his descriptions. Presented in chronological order, this volume cover everything from the days of the Model T Ford, up to the current brand-new Chevrolet and Ford products. A number of the photographs in this volume of recent shots of restored police crusiers, with notes made regarding those items which might not have been on the vehicles when they were in service. This is not a coffee table pretty picture book, but one designed for the serious student or fan of the vehicles used by the police, state troopers, county sheriffs, and highway patrol. As the world of law enforcement collectibles grows and has seen tremendous expansion of interest in the past few years, this book will be of interest to both young and old alike. Perfect to buy for yourself, or for a friend or family member who is in the field of up holding laws of our country.

This book is very detailled and pleasant to read. However, I was very disappointed by the pictures the book contains: none of them is in color, which I think would have been necessary, especially for the most recent models.

As a New Zealander with an interest in police cars from all over the world this book is the best I have seen, and I already own around fifteen books devoted to police vehicles. The only thing wrong with it is the photos are in black and white, a colour version would make this book unbeatable.

As a 30 year public safety and law-enforcement veteran and avid police car enthusiast who has owned no fewer than 6 police-package vehicles over the years and was responsible for maintining my departments fleet and designing its graphics for over 20 years, I would recommend this book to those wanting to learn more about "American Police Iron".

The information in the text is very thorough and generally accurate, however, the author has made many mistakes, specifically in his photo captions, leading one to believe that perhaps he did not research his photos carefully enough. Any hard-core police vehicle or state police enthusiast will be able to readily pick out errors in his captions such as:

Identifying Maryland State Police 1972 Dodge Polaras as being white. Maryland NEVER used marked white cars in the 70's or later; the cars were a light yellow (known as "Yellow Jackets") from '72 until the advent of the tan cruisers in 1984. That mistake would've been easily avoided had he done his homework;

Identifying what is clearly a Pennsylvania State Police 1977 Plymouth Gran Fury as a 1974 (the two model years had a completely different grille/headlight arrangement and the Gran Fury did not exist in a police-package vehicle until 1975 when it replaced the Fury I in the role as Plymouth's full-size police offering. PSP never purchased Gran Furys until the 1975 model year, then not again until 1977) and identifying it as an A38 package - an "add-on" option package of police components (suspension/brakes/powerplants, etc.) mounted to a retail market vehicle. PSP's Gran Furys purchased in 1975 and 1977 were NOT A38's, they were pure police-package cars. He also identifies the vehicle next to it in the photo as a 1977 Ford LTD II. The problem? PSP never bought 1977 Ford LTD IIs. They were purchased only in 1978. He also misidentifies the PSP signature combination roof beacon/siren speaker (a Whelen 5000-PA) in several PSP photos as a "red rotator". The 5000-PA was a strobe beacon and the PSP stopped using rotating lights after 1973 and did not return to them until 1991 when they bought multi-pod Federal Signal "Vector" lightbars on their Chevrolet Caprices. Contacting anyone in the PSP fleet maintenance division while researching his photo captions would have saved him from printing erroneous data;

Identifying Massachusetts State Police vehicles as being grey and dark blue. MSP colors are French and Electric Blue (thus the nicknames for their cruisers as "Blue Birds" or "Two Tones") and have been since the late 1930's when they adopted their uniform colors for their marked fleet. Again, prior verification would have corrected the printed mistake;

Identifying a 1985 Virginia State Police Ford LTD Crown Victoria as being "dark blue over silver". The VASP marked fleet wore their signature "Union Blue and Confederate Grey" paint scheme until 1998 when they adopted the blue-over-silver as a cost savings measure by using factory-standard paint colors as opposed to custom-mixed colors;

Contradicting himself in two captions regarding early-seventies vintage New York State Police photos. In one photo, he states that 1971 NYSP cruisers were white with blue hood and roof and black lettering (only NY Thruway units were so painted). In another photo, this time of a 1973 NYSP Plymouth, he correctly states that regular troop cars were BLACK-over-white and BLUE-over-white cars with the state outline decal belonged to the Thruway Authority.

There are other examples, but these were standouts for me. I wouldn't let these errors keep an enthusiast from purchasing the book though, just don't take everything you read as the gospel. I would've liked to have seen larger-format pictures and perhaps a color section, but that may have made the price more prohibitive. Overall, I recommend this book, errors and all, just for the variety of vintage American police vehicles pictured.

I really enjoyed this book! I had no idea just how much our police cars have evolved over the decades. The book is well-researched and very informative.

It starts at the dawn of the twentieth century when what we know today as "police cars" were in thier infancy. Its pretty comical to see how a Model T could be modified as a police vehicle!

From there, we move into the 1920s and 30s when Ford developed the first standard "police package" vehicles - specially engineered cars that could handle the rough-and-tumble aspects of police work.

This book chronicles the development of police cars until the end of the 1990s. The reader sees what makes, models, and upgrades (not to mention drawbacks) were prevelant in each decade. The rise and fall of the Chrysler squads, the terribly underpowered cruisers of the early 80's, the high-octane Camaros of the Highway Patrol, and the beloved Chevy Caprice (the most popular police package in history) are all covered in this book.

My only complaint? All the photos are in black and white...

Other than that, a great read!

-JCM

I live in Belgium and I'm a big collector of police cars. I have about 3500 1:43 diecast of POLICE CARS (in particular about 2000 of USA). I have actually seven books of police cars and this one is one of the best of all. Even if the pictures are black & white the book is fantastic and it really helps me for my researchs. I dream to have one in colour :)

I believe that this is very possibly the best book ever written about American police cars. I was sorry to see that it has gone out of print. The author knows the subject well and has written several over books on the subject. If he decides to write an updated edition, I would gladly lend him some photos I have. I have black and white, including an older motorcyle, if he decides to include them. Also several color photos including a police bus if he should want to include a section in color.

Would have loved to buy this but lost interest due to the fact that the mayority of the pictures are in black & white!