Letter Cars as Patrol vehicles???

["Kelly Pierce" <jkrestor300@xxxx>]

I have been reading all the speculation and what not about some agencies using Lettered 300's for patrol cars. As a law enforcement officer and a 300 fanatic, plus being a history buff on law enforcement and cars I thought I would throw my 2 cents worth out to all. In the 50's and 60's many small agencies had their officers use their own vehicles - no budget money to buy cars- they paid you mileage and weren't very generous at that! The Sheriff's Office I work for this was the case until 1971 or 72, when the county bought 4 ex-CHP cruisers. Prior to that one of the deputies drove a 69 HEMI Road Runner and had a great time of it- None of these personal vehicles had markings, just grille lights, or plug in roof "cherries" that you threw on the roof and went after it! So I suppose that it is possible that someone used a letter car for patrol use, but due to the cost of our cars at that time and the wages I doubt that anyone could have afforded that. 
Most agencies that did buy the vehicles would buy a "police package" at a bid price. Most of Chrysler's patrol packages were "muscle cars" in "taxi cab" clothing- 4 door sedans, a few 2 door sedans and even a few wagons. A D-500 dodge package was fairly common as a patrol car, "Chrysler Enforcer" packages could be had w/ 413 dual 4's etc. AND as we all know- Chrysler built a few cars all the time that weren't available as such- IF you knew the right person and the $'s were there it could be built. So the long and short is -It is possible that there were lettered patrol cars, but highly unlikely. Taxpayers would have screamed bloody murder if a agency spent that much on one car when two for the same money could have been purchased!-And most county commissioners etc. still are pretty tight w/ your/our tax $'s. I don't think ours would go for 300 M's when the Intrepid patrol package is $18,400...........


Joe Pierce
64K ht 64K conv 64 Sport 2drht


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