The following info came from [email protected] on 19 June 2000

Message: 3    Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 18:12:28 -0700    From: "John Elliott" Subject: Re: Re: BOLO You all have your thoughts about officer take-home cars. Well consider this: I moved here last year from Hawaii where the police dept. has what are called "subsidized cars". Under this program officers who attain the rank of "motor man" get to purchase their own vehicle that will be outfitted with lights/siren/radio/mdt for use while on duty and will be their personal vehicle off duty. They are paid an extra amount per month for wear and tear on the vehicle therefore the Subsidy part of subsidized car. While there are some restrictions on the type vehicle they can purchase, some of the allowed vehicles are pretty hot, ie: Camaro RS, Mustangs, etc. Most of the younger guys buy SUV's and a few of the older Sergeants buy Buicks, Oldsmobiles or their own Crown Vics and the like. Perhaps you TV fans noticed these non-standard looking police vehicles on shows like Magnum PI, old Hawaii Five-O, etc. Honolulu PD does have fleet vehicles such as Crown Vics with full markings that they refer to as "white cars". Lower ranking patrolmen use these mostly in Honolulu proper. If a motorman requires a prisoner transported to the cellblock they call dispatch and request a white car that has the partition in it. Restrictions: no Corvettes, no Lincolns or Caddys (didn't want the cops to look like pimps or drug dealers!). Vehicles had to have a certain wheelbase and be approved by the radio shop and garage as to the ability to install the radios and under hood siren speaker. The blue light was a simple strobe beacon mounted on a strap that the officer put on the roof when going on duty. A wire was run in the window and plugged into a jack located on the "B" pillar of the car. Most officers purchased wig-wag headlights or strobe systems on their own to beef up the lighting package since the department provided roof beacon was pretty lame. Old radio system was VHF and they had trunk lip antennas that could be removed.   When they went 800 trunking there was a loud scream when it was mandated that they have window mounted 3db gain cellular look-alike antennas installed on their cars. Also on VHF officers used only 1 freq in whatever district they were assigned to so they often hid the control heads under the seats or in glove boxes. Under trunking there were several TG's to use so it was mandated that the control head be visible and reachable by the officer from his seat. Again a loud scream because most guys had vehicles with center consoles so the heads had to be mounted on them and thus not hidden or out of view during off duty hours. I know this is sorta off-topic but I noticed a lot of messages on this thread so I thought I would throw this perspective on "take home cars" out for your consideration.