Got Old Detroit Police Car Photos?

[CountrySquire]

If so, please post. There is nothing on the web and I'd like to see how the markings have changed over the years.

[Ray1936]

Well, here's me about 1975. The first two digits of the serial number on the side of City of Detroit vehicles is the year of make, thus, this was a 1974 Chev Bel Aire. This car was used for Freeway patrol [[before MSP took over that function.)

[gnome]

Are you smoking a mini cigar? Ala Clint Eastwood's Good, Bad and the Ugly ? Mirrored sunglasses ... man, what a badass.

[stromberg2]

You do look like a badass, Ray!

Stromberg2

[Ray1936]

LOL, gang. The cigarette was the "More" brand with the dark paper. But I gave up the habit ten years ago.

[Meddle]

I have images turned off on this PC, but I'm guessing a white car with black lettering, all red lights, no blue.




And a leather bowtie.

[CountrySquire]

Thanks Ray! I did not know DPD used chevy's back then. I had assumed they used Dodge's all the way up the end of the Dodge Diplomat in 1988. I recall '67 riot footage showed the DPD had Plymouths and Dodges.

[Ray1936]

Well, let me test my brains.

DPD had Fords right after the war [[the BIG war, not these things we've had since '45). They were all black with gold lettering [[not reflective) up until 1951, when for some reason, they also painted the roofs a gold color. In 1952 they went back to all black with the yellow reflective lettering, and in 1955 they first used the "flying 7" trim along with "Police". Up until that year, they also had the siren mounted on the roof along with a rotating red light that really wasn't much. They also had a boxy thing at the front of the hood that lit up a red "police" when swiched on. It was great for stopping traffic violators; you'd pull alongside of them just far enough for them to see that hood light and they'd stop. Of course, that was then.

The '56 Ford, as I recall, was the first to have a bubble gum flasher on the roof. The mechanical siren was then placed under the hood. We rarely used them, because when you pushed the siren button [[or horn ring, if you had the dashboard switch in that position), the damn car practically died because it took so much juice. That problem wasn't solved until the mid-60s when the electronic whoopers came along.

The city hit some economic problems in the late fifties, and as I recall, the '57 Ford was the last year model they bought for two years. By the time 1959 came around, the fleet was pretty well beat to shit, and we welcomed the new feet. The '59's and 60's were Plymouths, and a few Dodge Darts. Those were the first years of the station wagons, also, used for the transportation of injured/sick persons [[pre-EMT days). Throughout the 60s, Plymouths were used with the reflective yellow tape and the flying 7 insignia except for one year. In 1961, the Plymouths were silver, with blue letters on the side [[and no flying 7).

Those Plymouths in the 60s also had the push-button transmissions, and they seemed to blow up awfully easy. Seems like the Chene Garage was always full of blown trannys. If you flipped down that 'park' lever while the car was still rolling, all kinds of shit happened.

I think there was a brief return to Fords in 1964, because I remember being glad to have the gearshift back on the steering wheel. It was also easy to miss 'park' and throw the sumbitch into reverse instead, no meaning to.

The Motor Traffic Bureau kept a fleet of old precinct cars for use of Motor officers in bad weather, except for the Freeway Patrol. They had an assortment of cars through the years, and were always white, as in the photo up above.

In 1965, the DPD got a fleet of white Plymouths with blue lettering for used by the Tactical Mobile Unit, sort of forerunners to SWAT units. They kept that color scheme for years. Meanwhile about 1967, patrol cars went to light blue with white trim. In the 70s, the yellow reflective tape was replaced with a reflective logo showing the "Spirit of Detroit", and Detroit Police in a new font I have one in the garage, I'll photograph it later and share. That scheme continued through to my retirement in 1984, at which time I got outta Dodge and headed for Vegas. Thus, I kind of lost track of the multitude of changes since. But I hope this helps. I also have some photos of much older cars that I'll try to find on my computer and post them later.

[Ray1936]

Here's the door decal used in the 70s and 80s.

[Ray1936]

Here's a great shot of a 1955 Ford that displays that siren/light thingie I mentioned up on the roof. Also in clear view is the hood light that I mentioned.

[eriedearie]

Now that's one good lookin' bad ass cop! Ain't no Barney Fife here!

[Maof]

^^^i agree^^^ and i love "Barn"

[Meddle]

The TSS cars I remember were 68 Fury IIIs with a blue and white scheme and a Federal VisiBar; one round blue light on each end.

Late 70's they were big on the small Fury in Lucerne Blue, sort of a metallic french blue. They switched up to the bigger Furys in the 80s when many departments switched to the boat sized Dodge Monacos.

For the longest time they used the Federal SuperBeacon, a single unit mounted on the roof with a blue glass bubble and 4 lamps that oscillated instead of rotating [[think the opening sequence of Hawaii Five-O). The siren speaker was mounted in front of the beacon.

Later in the 80s they went to the small Gran Fury, a boxy car that matched the Dodge Diplomat. That's when they went to the light bar with one side red, the other blue with the siren speaker in the middle.

For a while they used a siren/light combo unit with a red dome. Eventually some cars started getting strobes, but that was later in the 90s.

As I recall, the white freeway cars were always Chevys and the black 'cruisers' with yellow lettering were always Plymouths.

I don't remember any DPD units with the hood signs. I only remember seeing them on MSP cars.

I don't know if I have any pictures or not. I tossed a bunch of that stuff years ago.

[Ray1936]

This one's even a little before my time; a 1939 Chevrolet, parked alongside 1300 Beaubien, with the old Recorder's Court building in the close background and old Detroit Receiving Hospital in the far background. That thing in the windshield is a gun port.........

[Fury13]

By the time 1959 came around, the fleet was pretty well beat to shit, and we welcomed the new feet. The '59's and 60's were Plymouths, and a few Dodge Darts. Those were the first years of the station wagons, also, used for the transportation of injured/sick persons [[pre-EMT days). Throughout the 60s, Plymouths were used with the reflective yellow tape and the flying 7 insignia except for one year. In 1961, the Plymouths were silver, with blue letters on the side [[and no flying 7).

Those Plymouths in the 60s also had the push-button transmissions, and they seemed to blow up awfully easy. Seems like the Chene Garage was always full of blown trannys. If you flipped down that 'park' lever while the car was still rolling, all kinds of shit happened.

This is pretty interesting, and you have a hell of a memory, Ray. I think the problem with the trannys on those Plymouths would have been the method that the parking brake was put into play, not the trans itself [[those were the first TorqueFlites, a very good design) nor the pushbuttons. The buttons simply moved a cable, just like lever-actuated automatic transmissions. Now, the parking brake was a big drum-style cylinder on the end of the trans, with brake shoes inside that clamped down, if I remember correctly. If that thing was used while the car was rolling, I can only imagine the havoc. It wasn't designed for that; it was meant only to hold the car stationary while parked. Not exactly a great design for police work, I'd say. They got rid of that parking brake design after '62, I believe.

But I would imagine the engines in those '59 and '60 Plymouths were terrors. Hi-perf 361s, probably. I'll bet those cars could go.

[Fury13]

Oh, and that "Flying 7" motif was very cool.

As for the door decal used from the '70s through the '90s... ugh.

What's with the lower-case "detroit" and "police"? Is that some sort of e.e. cummings influence?

[CountrySquire]

I love this thread! It's been a pipe dream of mine to buy some '70s dodge / plymouth police car off eBay one of these days and paint in that metallic blue color I recall from my childhood. There is a nice show in Ferndale on Woodward crusie weekend that has a good turnout of old Cop Cars that Ray would love to see.

Here is a car I would want, can't you imagine it in that blue color with the Spirit of Detroit DPD sticker on the side?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

[Ray1936]

As for the door decal used from the '70s through the '90s... ugh.

What's with the lower-case "detroit" and "police"? Is that some sort of e.e. cummings influence?

Artistic license by the designer, I suppose, Fury. There was some flap over it when they first came out, especially over the lower case d and p. Can't recall the exact year they first came out, but over time the issue simply faded.

[CountrySquire]

This one's even a little before my time; a 1939 Chevrolet, parked alongside 1300 Beaubien, with the old Recorder's Court building in the close background and old Detroit Receiving Hospital in the far background. That thing in the windshield is a gun port.........

Looks like a phone receiver up to his ear. Car phones in 1939? WTF?

[Ray1936]

Looks like a phone receiver up to his ear. Car phones in 1939? WTF?

Actually just a radiophone setup, Squire. They used those handsets up until the late forties, early fifties. The radios in those days -- all tube types -- took up half the trunk.

Back to cars. Here's a car from about 1980 that had the solid blue color.

[Ray1936]

I don't think you can discuss DPD cars of the past without talking about the old four-man 'cruisers' that each precinct had. Known on the street as the "big four", it had three officers in plain clothes and a driver in uniform. They responded to all the heavy runs, like holdup in progress, etc., and were armed to the teeth with shotguns, tear gas, and the old standby, the .45 Thompson 1918 machine gun. [[The Thompson was practically never used, but it was a great psychological thing!).

Memory has me remembering that in the forties and fifties, they used Buicks, and later on, DeSotos. I'm not sure what this one is from 1957.....any guesses?

[CountrySquire]

I think you are correct on the year Ray, the car does look like a '57 Belvedere.

[Ray1936]

Could be. Can anyone identify the location from that building in the background? The serial number of the car, 571187-1 cinches that it was on the east side. The -1 indicates east side radio [[KQA414) while cars on the west side [[KQA371) had a -2.

[Meddle]

That blue light in #20 is the same one MSP has been using for years with a red dome. The white stripes were suppose to increase visibility. Inside are 2 - 6" aircraft landing lights. On the open road out in flat country, I've seen those for 3 miles or more.

Building almost looks like something on Belle Isle. All I remember hearing is KQA414, but I remember seeing KQA371 on some paperwork.

None of the cruisers I remember had roof lights; they were all slick tops.

Your first picture [[white car) shows the roof marking for the helicopters. When did they start marking the car roofs?

[Jman]

I remember the Buicks in the 40's and early 50's. I believe the DeSoto's started in 56 or 57.