Honolulu Police Department puts hybrid cruisers on the street …
TCHs, of course!

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/28637449.html

 

Just pray that the trooper is a hypermiler. This way if he has to chase you he wont accelerate too quickly and he'll set the car to cruise control

 

I saw white TCH taxi cabs in Boston last week.

 

"Book 'em Danno!"

 

Know how a lot of cops carry long weapons in the trunk or in a rack on the dash? They could switch to an industrial strength TASER that runs off the cars traction battery!

 

The article says they use 133,000 gallons of gas a month, that must be worth at least $530,000. Older cars run 10-15 MPG so I can't see them at least not doubling the MPG, possibly even triple that, so in theory if they replaced all the patrol cars with TCH, the savings could be more than 2.65 million dollars a year, not too shabby at all and with the amount of driving they probably do, the price difference would be paid off in few months. Actually, my question is what took them so long?

 

We've got a little fleet of these here in Pensacola/Escambia County FL.

 

My sister lives in Honolulu and as a result I visit there every few years. It is ASTOUNDING that you see more Priuses, RX400h's, and TCH's here in suburban Philadelphia than you ever see there.

I don't understand it. With the horrendous traffic in the greater Honolulu area - downtown AND the interstate - combined with some of the highest gas prices in the USA, the island should be inundated with them, the HCH and NAH.

My sister's excuse for having a GAS Camry - she doesn't drive enough miles annually to justify the higher initial expense. Maybe that's what most of the Hawaiians are thinking.

 

The police department's primary objective is to protect and defend, not to save a few dollars at the pump and reduce their carbon footprint.
Over the years they've opted for big, powerful, rear wheel driven muscle cars that (at least in theory) allowed them to keep up with the bad guys.
Not saying the TCH isn't every bit as mean and powerful as a Crown Vic or a Charger, but some police departments might see it differently.
One more thing, police department personnel are typically very patriotic (and union). While many of the TCH's are built in the US, it still is considered a foreign car and with all the (self inflicted) problems in Detroit, it's a tough sell to ask them to send their hard earned, American, dollars to Japan. I believe in globalization, but most unions don't.

 

That's one way of looking at it, on the other hand, they're using taxpayers money and it shouldn't be wasted. For example Mayor Bloomberg of NYC just announced $ 0.5 billion cuts across the board (police department included) with plans of $1 billion for next year. Also not every police car is used in wild California style road chase, I think some places forbid chases all together and use road blocks etc. instead for safety of bystanders.
I could swear Crown Victoria was assembled In Ontario, Canada and last time I checked on the map, it was outside of US, contrary to TCH build in Kentucky. I think they should at least test TCH to see how they perform in such duties and hopefully they over ride governor artificially limiting speed to 120MPH. In Europe and other parts of the World they use small passengers cars for police duties for many years. Where were the Unions and their political pressure when Air Force awarded 300 billion tanker contract to Airbus instead of Boeing? After protests it's been suspended for now, but the fact remains, there still is great chance the high tech jobs of building aircrafts can be awarded by our DOD to French based Airbus.
Anyway, I hope they publish their experience with TCH as cop car.