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Question for other LEO's


Tascosa, SASS# 24838

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This is close to an Alpo question. Im reading fiction Detective stories on my kindle. They all refer to their patrol units as 'cruisers'. We never called our marked units as 'cruisers', we just called them 'units'. Like "where did y'all park your unit," or "can I have the keys to your car. We all knew what we were referring to. Occasionally someone might had asked "are you taking a marked unit"?

Never said 'cruisers'. Is that a yankee term? Or maybe an eastern term? Stories are in Washington state, Tenn., Fla., and DC area.

\What did you call your marked units?

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I went to the academy with a guy who had been a cop in Michigan. He called the cars cruisers? In LAPD they call them “shops”. :blink:

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Marked, unmarked and yes cruiser such as cruiser 1 which was the chief. Most often used was, "Piece of crap".

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In Detroit, the Cruiser was typically a four man car.  IN my experience, we either called them marked, semi-marked or motor (motorcycle).  

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A lot a police agencies use pool cars that are driven around the clock by each shift.  These cars get crappy really fast.

 

Our agency was very proactive in keeping cars in good shape.  Every sworn officer was issued their own car and it was up to the officer to keep the car maintained.  The vehicle was inspected monthly by a supervisor.  Every 4 years, the car was replaced with a new one with all new equipment.  The 4 year old car was put into a pool of cars used as spares for another year and then auctioned off to the public.  We weren't allowed to drive cars with body damage on patrol.   If you were involved in an accident, you had to turn the car in and drive a spare.  We got to drive the cars home and  could put our own stuff in them, within reason.  (CB radios, Ham radios, locking gun racks, etc)

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All I ever heard was "squad" or just "car."

 

Older troops  would use squad.  "Bring your squad to Post so the radio tech can work on it."

 

Younger troops. " Your car could really use a wash."

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On Fargo they called them prowlers when I worked on them as a radio installer and technician we called them cop cars and they were usually Chrysler products.

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The RCMP refer them as PC's (Police Car) as in "where did you park the PC? or "There are 4 cars up ahead and one is a PC."

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In VT they are cruisers, but it may have a designation like "Unit 1".  So, generically it's a cruiser unless referring to a specific cruiser.  Like an officer had an oil change on Unit 1.

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15 hours ago, LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L said:

We've always just called them "cars" or by whatever number is assigned to that particular vehicle.  "You driving 42 tonight?" 

Us too. My partner and I would bust on certain dispatchers and answer ‘Cruiser 211’ when called, especially if it was slow that particular night.

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I am not a police officer but I call them "police cars".

When they are behind me with the light bar on I have other colorful names for them... and me, for getting caught. :D

 

 

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My last 2 years on the dept. I would sometimes work with another officer my age and we would get in service as the, "Geriatric Car". There would be complete silence on the radio being later told all the dispatchers were wetting their pants with laughter, or something like that.

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32 minutes ago, Smoken D said:

My last 2 years on the dept. I would sometimes work with another officer my age and we would get in service as the, "Geriatric Car". There would be complete silence on the radio being later told all the dispatchers were wetting their pants with laughter, or something like that.

 

Hard to beat radio pranks on the job. Our department (back in the day, 1995ish) had two radios, high band (155.XXX) and low band (42.XXX). We had a guy admit during a dinner break that he was worried about the department going with dash cameras. When asked why, he said he had a bad habit of talking to himself when he drives around. We told him they just come on with the red lights, or you turn them on, and he felt better.

 

Fast forward a month, and he left his car at the state garage for maintenance while he was on vacation. "Somebody" taped down the mic button on the low band radio, which went on with the ignition. His first day back he was on the air instantly. When dispatch (and the rest of the shift) quit laughing they called him on high band and asked him to adjust his low band mic. Too funny.

 

And he was right. He did talk to himself quite a bit.:D

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Seems to me when my Dad was on the job in upstate South Carolina (about a million years ago) they were occasionally referred to as prowl cars, but it wasn't mandatory.  I think Dad just called his a car.  (And, btw, his partner was Jimmy Stewart -- thanks for the memory)

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On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 7:14 PM, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

All I ever heard was "squad" or just "car."

 

Older troops  would use squad.  "Bring your squad to Post so the radio tech can work on it."

 

Younger troops. " Your car could really use a wash."

 

Yep, That's what we called them, too

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There were referred to as Squad cars in my neck of the woods.  We had a police Chief that would send out patrols of three wheel motorcycles (6 or seven in a collection) on a frequent but random basis throughout our neighborhood (it was quite rough with a higher than average crime frequency).  These patrols were referred to as wolf packs.  We did not mess with the police officers much as they all were try-outs for Gene Krupa playing a drum  solo on your head with a night stick.  Don't ask me how I know. :-(

 

STL Suomi

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