Dodge Charger police cars: where they are, who is using them

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Almost immediately after they became available, the Dodge Charger police package was ordered by hundreds of departments across the country, often in small quantities for testing purposes. It still competes against Chevrolet's Impala and Ford’s Crown Victoria, which Ford’s director of government sales says will continue production through at least calendar-year 2011 with only minor changes.

According to Adamson Industries, the North Carolina Highway Patrol, with over 500 units on the road, reported that the Hemi had better gas mileage than the V6, due to the multiple displacement system. (Thanks, Chief Michael Poulin - Milo, Maine PD.) Chris Pate wrote in late 2008, "The first Chargers were black with a silver stripe as an experimental scheme. We decided to retain the traditional silver with black stripe."

More than 2,500 police Chargers were sold in 2006; 8,000 in 2007; and 10,000 are projected for 2008 (as of September).

Florida Highway Patrol

After soliciting bids for 2008 patrol cars, the Florida Highway Patrol chose all three major options. Ford priced the Crown Victoria police package at $21,780 each, Chevrolet priced the Impala at $18,898, and Dodge put the Hemi Charger at $21,973; prices are for full driveaway including paint, lights, radio, and other equipment. The Impalas, which are not classed as pursuit vehicles, are being relegated to community service officer (CSO) duties. 211 Fords and 102 Dodge Chargers were ordered for patrol and pursuit. Two of these will be used for training; and ten Chargers will be assigned to each of the ten FHP troops for evaluation, for 100 evaluation cars in all.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, each troop will receive five marked Chargers with overhead lightbars; the other five will have standard civilian paint with interior emergency lights, and will be used to supplement the existing aggressive driver program.

Chargers have been coming in, in small numbers, to the Central Installation Facility in Middleburg, along with equipment such as lights, sirens, partitions, and trunk shelving. Around 70% of them have arrived. The first two have gone to the FHP Training Academy, which will have a "Train the Trainer" familiarization class for two members from each of our ten troops for the end of July. Once that is completed, the rest of the cars will be sent out, arriving on the road around early August.

Rick Ehrenberg took a ride with a trooper in one of these, and experienced active high-speed pursuits. The story was in Mopar Action.

Other units

Interest in the Charger has been national in scope, and many departments across the nation — too many for us to keep track of — have ordered at least a single test unit, and often five to ten vehicles. As one would expect, highway and pursuit vehicles are generally V8s, and standard patrols are generally getting V6s.

These State Police and highway-authority buys were reported to us: Alabama (many Chargers in 2008); Alaska (starting 2009); Arkansas (160 Hemi cars and some V6 sedans), California (added 2/08), Colorado (“some” Dodges in 2009), Connecticut (11 unmarked Dodge Hemis added in 2007), Delaware, Florida (test cars in 2008, pursuit cars in 2009), Georgia, Illinois, Iowa (22 in 2006), Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan (added 2008), Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina (500 cars — 200 in 2008 and 300 in 2009; V6 for most officers), North Dakota (Hemi cars), Oklahoma Turnpike, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin (7 for testing in 2006; no word afterwards), Wyoming Highway Patrol, Oregon (45 Hemi Chargers); Texas State Police (rumor: moving entire fleet); Utah (350 vehicles in 2006-2008); Virginia (36 Hemis for 2006). New Jersey appears to have gained a fleet of unmarked cars operating on Route 80.

The Mexican Highway Patrol acquired a fleet of 816 Chargers in 2007, replacing both Crown Victorias and Intrepids, shortly after they became available. “The Dodge Charger police package made fans of the Mexican Federal Police, who commented that these new patrol cars have improved performance and more modern equipment such as the Global Positioning System and a 360° vision camera that reaches 100 meters and can be remote-control operated.” Pollution-troubled Mexico City bought 751 Neons for its police department in 2005; the adjoining city of Nauculpan also bought a batch of Chargers.

In 2008, the Florida Highway Patrol ordered 102 Chargers, with two going to the training center and the rest allocated equally to each patrol area as evaluation units; for each of the ten units, five Chargers will be marked, and five will be unmarked to supplement the aggressive-driver program. For 2009, the Charger was made available to officers, who can take the vehicles home, along with Fords and Chevrolet Impalas (the latter are used for the Bureau of Investigations and for the Community Service Officer Programs).

Curtis Redgap noted that the policy of the FHP is to chase criminals until they are caught, so they can be demanding on their cars. Few troopers are hurt during high-speed pursuits, according to Curtis, with most injuries are deaths occuring while parked or at other activites; the troopers are known for high-speed driving skills. Units are on a three-year turnover and can be extended for up to six years (as the last Diplomats and Impalas were).

The New York City police purchased fifteen units in 2006 for testing, with ten Hemis and five V6s (for city-street use). The NYPD has 3,000 vehicles and stuck with Chrysler until 1989, when the last rear-drive Chrysler car of the 20th Century was sold; those Diplomats and Gran Furys were kept around for an unusually long time. (Thanks, Doug Hetrick.) We don’t know how the Chargers are doing now; New York City appears to have standardized on Impalas before the Charger came out. An NYC parking lot in late 2009 had a mix of cars including a fully-marked Nissan.

He wrote further:

“The big advantage of the Charger is the availability of a more economical six for patrol work and the hottest V8 for pursuit work. Chevy does not field a V8 in their police Impala and Ford offers only a V8.”

That said, North Carolina, which had 500 Chargers on the road in 2008, found that the Hemi’s MDS actually gave it a gas mileage advantage over the V6.

Regarding Virginia, Trooper T. Cashin wrote: “36 total for 2006. Most will be fully marked, with a few slicktops and unmarked. They should all be ready for 2007 our 75th Anniversary with new graphics that I designed for my department. All of them are Hemis, therefore my department is treating them as high performance vehicles and requires high performance driver training for those selected to get one.”

Dodge Chargers of Mexico

Jaime Hale wrote:

Mexican president Calderón posted for a photo opp, giving the go-ahead to a bunch of Charger police cruisers that are now an integral part of our Federal Highway Police, an institution that has almost always had Dodges in its fleet.

In the 1970s, those guys had Super Bees. These were Plymouth Dusters (Valiant Duster in Mexico) with a 4-barrel 318 LA engine, with Hurst shift lever, fat tires, the works. They were the fastest cars in the country. From then they had the local versions of the Aspen/Volare with the 360 V8, but in the early 1980s they switched brands to GM. By 1988 they had a local version of the Plymouth Caravelle, turbocharged and everything. And it was fast. I remember that even though this car was a regular sedan, its aerodynamics were such that the car could drive safely at very high speeds. Then in the 1990s, NAFTA came on line and we saw Intrepids, Impalas and Crown Vics doing the job, until now, when Dodge showed up with the Charger.

The official bulletin of the Mexican Federal Highway Police says that they chose the 2007 Charger. They bought 816 cars, out of which 396 have the 340 hp Hemi engine, and the rest have the 3.5 V6 rated at 250 hp. According to the press release, there are several differences between the street Charger and the police cruisers, namely, a reinforced suspension, oil coolers for both the engine and the transmission, special communications equipment including GPS, a 360-degree video camera and other goodies that are not specified. This order is the largest-ever order that DCX has had in the country for a single client.

Naucalpan, a city adjoining Mexico City, also has at least one Charger patrol car. In this particular case I wouldn't be surprised if the car would have the V6.

For more information

Squad cars | Insider's Guide to Chrysler | Rear-Drive Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth cars
Dodge Charger Police Car Main Page | MSP and LA County Squad Car Comparisons

General	Engines	Variants
Classic Dodge Chargers	New Hemi	Dodge Charger squad cars
2011 Dodge Chargers	426 Hemi	Charger Daytonas: 180 mph
2006-2010 Dodge Charger	440 Six-Pack	Australian Valiant Chargers
Dodge and Plymouth at NASCAR	318	South American Valiant Chargers
Classic Charger creation story	383	Dodge Omni Chargers
Charger birthday party	440	Magnum (Charger SE)
Charger Sidelights	Other Engines	1999 Dodge Charger R/T
Charger forums	Torqueflite	Dodge Charger model review

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