By Robert Mills
Lowell Sun
LOWELL, Mass. — Starting this fall, the look of police cruisers in Lowell will begin to change dramatically as the department begins buying 2013 Chevrolet Caprice police-patrol vehicles now that the ubiquitous Ford Crown Victoria is out of production.
The “Crown Vics” that have been patrolling the streets for years are no longer being made, so Lt. Timothy Crowley, commander of the department’s Traffic Bureau, along with mechanic Koule Tsouprakos, spent 18 months testing and evaluating possible replacements.
In a three-page letter sent to the superintendent in June, Crowley and Tsouprakos recommended the Caprice.
The department already has one 2011 Caprice that is loaned out for officers to test and evaluate it, and is used by the Traffic Bureau the rest of the time.
Crowley said the Caprice outclassed Ford Taurus, Ford Explorer and Dodge Charger police interceptors that were test-driven and inspected during multiple test drives and presentations conducted since early this year.
The cost of the vehicles was nearly identical, according to Crowley, with a difference of only $200 to $300 between models. Gas mileage was also similar, although all the new models of vehicles get better mileage than the old Crown Victoria.
“The mileage of all, city/highway/combined were better than the Crown Vic was getting, and was within 1 to 2 mpg depending on the model,” Crowley wrote. “Depending on the test, the Caprice gets 15 -17 mpg in the city, compared to 13-14 for the Crown Vic.”
The cruisers will be purchased and rolled out as needed as the department replaces about half of the front-line fleet of cruisers annually. That usually amounts to about seven cars per year, Crowley said.
Those purchases will begin this fall as 2013 models become available.
The front-line fleet are the patrol cars that are most visible in city neighborhoods.
As the new Caprice cruisers are added to the front-line fleet, the aging Crown Victorias will be assigned to specialized units like Community Response, the Housing Authority Unit, and used as spares.
“They are kept in service until they are no longer safe or until they die,” Crowley said.
Crowley wrote that the Caprice has a V8 engine that can run on four-cylinders at steady speeds and idle, and is rear-wheel drive, which both he and Tsouprakos prefer.
Tsouprakos felt the Caprice would be the easiest and cheapest car to maintain.
The department also relied on annual testing of police vehicles conducted by Michigan State Police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, which rated the Caprice the best available vehicle in 2011 and 2012.
Crowley said 26 Lowell officers have test-driven the Caprice, with good results.
“Their feedback was very positive, with the lone complaint by a few that the outside mirrors were too small,” Crowley wrote.
The Dodge Charger, a car being used by Massachusetts State Police and other local departments, did not fare as well, largely because of complaints about visibility during test drives.
“The officers who we spoke to had the same complaints about visibility and many of these departments were moving away from the Charger to something different,” Crowley wrote.
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