The Wheels of Justice

SERGEANT JAMES POST TRANSPORTATION 2023 P&SN presents its 25th annual report on the latest technical advances in police vehicles, components and aftermarket equipment. Welcome to our annual transportation issue in which we report on all the newest LE vehicles and equipment as gleaned from the Annual Michigan State Police (MSP) Vehicle Evaluation, as well as annual events such as this year’s IACP Conference and Police Security Expo. We’ll first report on the results of the MSP tests of the popular…

SERGEANT JAMES POST ARE THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE RUNNING FLAT? Break out the donuts, boys, and I don’t mean Krispy Kremes. I’m talking about the donut spares in your trunks.  Due to too many reasons, for only the second time in history, American police departments are running on three flat tires and fumes from a tank of unleaded gas and some are considering drastic changes in their service delivery. Our police are underfunded, understaffed and are certainly an endangered species…

SERGEANT JAMES POST THE ACOPALYPSE Coming soon to a multiplex near you: “The Acopalypse.” Opening scene: Tom Cruise, in a somewhat grungy police uniform, walks down a debris littered city street, past burnt-out businesses, numerous abandoned tents and shopping carts, until he spots what he’s looking for – an abandoned several years old police cruiser. It sits between two burnt-out units, although graffiti covered and sitting on four cinder blocks, this one is relatively intact. Officer Cruise opens a door…

Where Have All the Cruisers Gone? (And Where to Find Them) Sergeant James Post Any of us who have worked the streets have heard this tired mantra too many times from a concerned citizen: “It never fails, there’s never a cop when you need one.” Well, due to the times we’re living in (COVID Part Three; shipping containers scattered all over the Pacific; runaway inflation – the highest in 40 years; running looters; and semiconductor chips scarcer than good news…

Sergeant James Post TRANSPORTATION 2022 P&SN presents its 24th annual report on the latest technical advances in police vehicles, components and aftermarket equipment. Welcome to our annual transportation issue when we announce the results of the annual Michigan State Police (MSP) pursuit vehicle evaluations and introduce you to recently released vehicle and equipment announcements. Unfortunately, like our 2021 report, the results for 2022 have once again been impacted by worldwide events, primarily COVID-19. From politics to fuel shortages, to the…

Sergeant James Post HEADLINES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED I don’t know about you, but does today feel like it’s 2020 all over again? It’s like we’re living the movie, Groundhog Day – every day is déjà vu. COVID is still here; masks on/masks off – who the hell knows what to do as the CDC changes guidelines hourly. Cities are still burning, killers are still killing, looters are still looting, and the men and women in blue are still dying…

Sergeant James Post Protecting Officers: Ballistic Armor for Police Vehicles Advances in ballistic protection technology have made adding armor to law enforcement vehicles easier and more affordable, eliminating the need for “patrol cars” like the one shown below.  “Let’s be careful out there.” With these words, Sergeant Phil Esterhaus (played by Michael Conrad) closed the daily roll call which signaled a new episode of the beloved “Hill Street Blues,” a television show on NBC which aired from 1981 to 1987….

Sergeant James Post TRANSPORTATION 2021 P&SN presents its 23rd annual report on the latest technical advances in police vehicles, components and aftermarket equipment. The year 2020 has been one of the most significant in the last century for all Americans and not in a good way. The United States has been attacked with a virus which, in nine months as I write this, has infected 7.8 million Americans and killed over 215,000 souls (with similar results worldwide). This pandemic has…

Sergeant James Post SUMMER SPECIALS (AND IT AIN’T ICE CREAM) Nat King Cole once sang about “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” but who would have guessed that the new “lazy” is because of the never-ending COVID-19 lockdown and the new “hazy” is the tear gas and arson smoke hanging over almost every major American city? My job as a columnist for this magazine is to report on the latest LE vehicles and equipment and those of you who have followed…

Sergeant James Post CORONAVIRUS AND POLICE CARS If you had told me six months ago, or even 20 years ago (when I first started this column), that I would be writing about a global pandemic, I would have volunteered you for a room at the laughing academy. But, here I am in lockdown, staring out of my office window, feeling like my dogs watching for squirrels. A new enemy of all Americans (and the rest of the world) has landed…