rising to the bait...

1) the top speed of a Prius is as high or higher than that of most of the speeds of high-speed chases, even, i'd bet, loaded with a full complement of police gear.
2) no car can outrun radio communications.
3) i'd bet a prius could be modified to have a secure back-seat area for an apprehended perp, even if it needed to have special locks to prevent the back seats from being lowered, and maybe a second grille above the headrests...

i don't think there's any reason a prius couldn't do regular police work. what it lacks is the acceleration of the 440 hemi-cuda block everyone lusts after, but once the acceleration phase is over, items 1 and 2 take over.

you guys know way more about this than i do, but could you offer opinions or better, experiences, where acceleration made the difference? my prius could run uphill on either side of the California Sierras at 85 miles per hour on cruise-control and never miss a beat, so long as traffic was moving at that rate, and it usually was.

and since most police cruisers are NOT run under wide-open-throttle acceleration every few minutes, for AVERAGE use, the prius would let many police forces save budget money on gasoline and put it to more productive uses. taxpayers might approve of that, too!

+af
Northwest Raleigh, NC, USA
'04 Silver opt.BC/9; 24,000+ miles so far
http://www.plusaf.com/prius/prius.htm
http://www.plusaf.com/coast/coast1.htm
My Prius without the trailer:

My Prius with the trailer:

Most of the prius police cars I have seen are unmarked and use the whelen talon LED lights in the front and rear windows.

The other agencies that are running them in a marked capacity are utlizing the LED light bars (less current draw)

This is true for the pursiut policies most departments are shying away from them unless its a forcable felony : armed robbery , armed home invasion, kid napping, ect. and then they just radio someone up the road to throw out stop sticks to disable the fleeing car.

The bigger cars are nice for comfort & transporting bad guys, but you could do the same just having a 2 fullsized vans per precinct to transport them like they do up north.

I have noticed some city agencies using the chevy malibu with a hevy duty alternator, as patrol cars I dont think theres much of a size difference..

Most departments are using the ford taurus, Chevy impala, ford crown vic & marquis, dodge intrepid, & the new charger/magnums as patrol cars

The other vehicles used are the chevy astro, ford freestar, dodge mini van, and the full sized versions ford, chevy & dodge.

I think in short more departments will continue to lean towards the Hybrids in the future.

04' # 5, W/leather & JBL omitted.
"Prius, Just ask the person that drives one"
04' Tundra, 18mpg city & 22mpg hwy.
04' Prius, 60mpg city & 53mpg hwy.

Kenstyle NHW20 AERO Kit