Aftermarket augments OEMs in delivering sophisticated police vehicles

Jan. 1, 2020
  Advanced automotive technologies were in full force as an entire American city was placed under lockdown during the massive manhunt for the suspected Boston Marathon bombers.

Advanced automotive technologies were in full force as an entire American city was placed under lockdown during the massive manhunt for the suspected Boston Marathon bombers.

Participating in the extraordinary search were specialized police battlewagons based on a Ford F-550 Super Duty chassis and upfitted by Lenco Industries, a global provider of law enforcement and military vehicles headquartered in Pittsfield, Mass.

Accompanied by a fleet that included Ford P71 Crown Victoria police cruisers, the intense track-down was anchored by the $1.3-million Massachusetts State Police Incident Command Center, an 80-foot-long trailer-and-tent complex brought to the scene by a Freightliner tractor rig.

Authorities were also aided by the Mercedes-Benz mbrace tracking system, which had been activated after the carjacking victim was able to escape from his ML350 SUV and supply the PIN code.

Having this type of tracking technology was especially useful given the confusing layout of Boston’s cityscape, according to Patrick Cibotti, owner of Boston Body Works. While modern-day thoroughfares have been constructed over the years, some of the traffic patterns date back to when the original village was specifically designed to repel – or at the very least confuse – a menacing invasion force.

“It started in Revolutionary times; there was no main street so an army couldn’t march through town,” Cibotti explains. “There are still a lot of those old streets that ‘lead to nowhere’ that are still here.”

The 15-bay shop is located a scant six blocks from the marathon’s finish line. “A friend of mine was right on the scene, and he had invited me to watch the race,” Cibotti recounts. He instead begged-off to bid at a nearby car auction, where “I saw a big puff of smoke” as the explosions went off. “It was a scary time.”

As the subsequent manhunt unfolded an automated police telephone message urged everyone to either stay at home or remain where they were at that time. The Boston Body Works staff elected to stay on-site with the option of evacuating if instructed by authorities. “They drove by and didn’t even look at us. It was a ghost town,” says Cibotti. “We had the TV on all day and we were glued to it.”

Lucrative niche

As with many shops throughout the country, Boston Body Works routinely repairs local police cars brought in for service.

Some aftermarket operations specialize in upfitting law enforcement vehicles, and these shops often market a line of police and firefighting equipment to facilitate the modifications taking place in the bays.

“It can be lucrative,” says sales representative Marko Dejong at Southwest Public Safety in San Antonio, Texas, a body shop that pursues this niche along with serving a civilian clientele. Flashing lights, sirens, insignias, push-bars, gun racks and sophisticated communications gear are among the installations.

“San Antonio has 700 cars in their fleet, and that’s not including the county and all the other area departments,” Dejong says, adding that police cruisers are typically put up for sale upon reaching 60,000 miles on the odometer.

“We’ve shipped vehicles as far away as Japan,” he notes. “It’s normally special circumstances – like a chief’s car that has to be perfect.” Most of this work, though, is conducted locally by shops in various communities across the nation.

“It’s pretty self-explanatory stuff,” says Dejong as he describes the installation processes. Nonetheless, newer staff members “work with an experienced technician for a year before we let them do it on their own.”

A year-long apprenticeship for technicians is also standard operating procedure at Mark’s Body Shop in Grand Rapids, Mich. “Some guys catch on quick, but it’s a year minimum to get them in tune,” says owner Mark DeHoek.

“There is a lot to consider,” he points out. “Everyone has something different they want placed, and airbags are in issue” when arranging a vehicle’s add-on components. On a scale of 1 to 10, he rates the level of difficulty at 7 or 8. “Every time they change a model year you’re up against new challenges, so you’re always learning.”

(For example, Ohio’s State Highway Patrol is replacing all of its cruiser-mounted shotguns – at a cost of $600,000 – with a shorter-barreled model in-part because they no longer fit in the new Dodge Chargers that are being implemented following Ford’s retirement of the Crown Vic; the gun racks need to be reconfigured as well.)

DeHoek is also a firefighter, and thus “I had a foot in the door” when obtaining a regional sales distributorship for an array of first-responder products. In addition to police cars, the shop also works on fire trucks, ambulances, snow plows and other municipal vehicles for about 20 jurisdictions.

The distribution aspect of the business also entails selling just the equipment, which is often installed in-house by mechanically inclined members of the various departments.

Safety and durability

Although Ford ceased production of the venerable Crown Vic in 2011, “it’s still the police officer’s choice,” says DeHoek. “There are a lot of people who would like to have it again.”

He says the current most-desired police models include variations of the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Tahoe.

Manufactured in Chicago, Ford’s engineers worked with an advisory board of law enforcement professionals to develop its Police Interceptor Utility. “Their feedback mattered to us,” says Scott Tobin, the automaker’s segment director. “Safety and durability were at the top of their list, so safety and durability were at the top of ours.”

Available in front- and all-wheel-drive models, the vehicle’s Personal Safety System “is a holistic, networked safety approach” to the engineering that includes numerous innovations such as Ballistic Door Panels and a 75 mph crash test rating, Tobin says.

The driver’s seat is six-way power adjustable with lumbar support. Both front seats feature sculpted foam at the bottom to accommodate an officer’s utility belt. Inserted into the seatback are anti-stab plates designed to protect the occupants in front.

Tested in action by the Michigan Sate Police, Chevy’s 2WD police Tahoe is designed for high pursuit situations with a top speedometer reading of 140 mph, while the 4WD model “has become the solution of choice for many first responders, including K9, tactical and other special applications,” according to Ed Peper, a General Motors divisional vice president. The line also includes a special service hybrid edition.

Chrysler’s Dodge Charger Pursuit features V-6 or V-8 rear-wheel-drive configurations and a police-specific Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system. A special fan “stabilizes trunk temperature in a relatively short period of time, helping all trunk-mounted electronic equipment to function properly by circulating heated or cooled air from the driver’s compartment into the trunk area,” explains Peter Grady, a company vice president.

Another innovation is a slide-out trunk tray that provides “a stable, easily accessible platform from which the installer can position and install electrical equipment. Locking slides provide the movement, allowing a technician easier access to equipment mounted to the tray,” Grady says. “An industry-first integral ground buss bar helps eliminate poor grounding, the most common equipment issue.”

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