Some of you have previously asked whether Grand Marquises are a common police vehicle, especially since many have come out in movies...well, here's your answer:

http://members.fortunecity.com/rwcar4n/uni.html

The 'Grand' looks just as good being a police cruiser as the 'Crown' does ... Now I don’t know which one I like more , though I would go for the Grand ... because its still rare to see one as a police cruiser ...

It seems as good as the Crown Victoria.. no difference apparently

It seems to me that the Grand Marquis is just a slightly more upscale version of the Crown Vic, so they buy the cheaper Crown Vic, it's still the same car more or less.

Also, on the subject of police, I'd like to share this, I saw this excellent video showing French police (probably the Gendarmerie Nationale) using dogs in training exercises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7mhPz2pzdk

Those Alsations are incredible, they might not look very big but they can easily knock men to the ground. I couldn't stop laughing when one of them bit the cop and he swings it through the air with it still hanging onto his arm! I don't understand what they are saying, but it's probably along the lines of "Get this f***ing dog off me!" At the end it says "Le passion de Chien, ala passion explosive!" It's been a long time since I did French at school but I think I know what that means!

You have never seen one of those trainings? you seem surprised...

Well, I've never seen police dogs in real action in real life. In all the police documentaries I've seen (mostly about British police forces), I've never seen superdogs who can pull people out of moving vehicles or leap over cars. I first discovered it on The Policeman's Blog written by an ex-cop from the Staffordshire Police and he said the dogs in the video made their dogs (probably German Shepherds and Rottweilers) look like poodles. The problem we have in our country is that even when they set the dogs on some lowlife wanted for offences who is running away from the police, they complain about injuries and try to take legal action (never mind that they are the ones who have committed a crime, not the police) and it all gets into the papers. Seems to me they should just let the dog finish it's meal.

Since Grand Marquis' and Crown Victorias are use for police cars, what about the Lincoln Town Car?

Sure, why not? – we’ll just put thieves and murderers in the back of a luxury Town Car, and haul them to jail ...

Is the TC rear wheel drive like the CrownVic and Marquis (Marquois?)?

Yes, V8-Rear wheel drive ... but its too big and heavy to be useful as a cop car (plus, I don’t know of any police departments that would pay the steep price for one) They have the smaller 4.6 Liter V8 which has more bark than bite. But then again the Town Car isn’t built for performance, its strictly built for luxury.

Going to jail in luxury and style!

Well, our police use BMWs, Range Rovers and years ago they used Jaguars, all those are more expensive than Lincolns (Town Cars start at $40,000, that's a mere £20,000, to us that's dirt cheap for a car like that). But then our police forces probably don't buy cars in the same quantities as the American police departments (if all those movies are anything to go by), and they use a mix of small cars and larger, fast persuit cars, whereas every cop in America seems to drive a huge Crown Vic. Although of course it makes little sense to use Town Cars, they are more or less a luxury version of the Crown Vic, they aren't any faster, whereas BMWs are chosen for their speed and Range Rovers for their size.

G-MANN, why do police departments over there use such luxurious vehicles, or such fast vehicles, for that matter? Are they involved in a lot of high speed pursuits, or is it because they "just can?"

They use different cars for different jobs, the basic police patrol car (panda car) is usually just something small like a Vauxhall Astra, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus. For motorway policing and persuit they need fast cars so they use things like Volvo V70s, Vauxhall Omegas, and BMWs (3-series or 5-series). I think pursuit cars are modified for high performance, I've heard they can do up to 170mph because they take the limiters out of the engines. If the police have such fast cars, hopefully people will get the message that it is extremely difficult to escape the law. And sometimes they have 4x4s like Range Rovers and BMW X5s (God knows why they use this though). Regional police forces (each one usually covers a county or several small counties) don't all use the same makes of car, so you see more of a variety of different makes and models being used as police cars than you usually see in America (where the Crown Vic is King of police cars). Some forces even have a couple of souped-up Subaru Impreza WRXs. Maybe they choose BMWs because they are fast and nimble. And the Range Rover is a very good offroader. They also like to use estate cars (wagons) because they can carry more equipment. I don't know if they have any special deals with car companies, but with persuit vehicles they seem to buy the models with the most powerful engines and modify them even further. But they don't buy expensive cars for the "luxury", I don't think any police car has leather upholstery. One thing is for sure, British police work isn't exactly glamourous.

Years ago police used Jaguar MkIIs because it was one of the fastest saloons around at the time, it was also famous as a getaway car for professional crooks.

I'm don't know much about policing in Britain, but I wouldn't they say have better funding than America police. I really don't know. I don't know if we have more chases than in American but there are still plenty of them happening.

Some European police even use supercars as police cars, but it's probably more of a publicity stunt, and they can only afford to have one or two. The Italian State Police were donated a Gallardo by Lamborghini, but it's not like they got a whole fleet of them.

In France they had Peugeot 306 S16, now replaced by Subaru Impreza (WRX?) when they need fast cars.
I suppose that there are chases like in USA (as G-MANN said, I do not know either if there are more or less), but here it is not broadcasted on TV.
In Belgium I do not know which fast car they have currently.
In Germany they always had (and still have) few Porsche 911.

I dont know if any the police or La Guardia Civil have any super cars for chases mainly but at least i hjave never heard of any, the only "different" car i know is this Hummer H1 http://usuarios.lycos.es/javieko/vehicles_fotos/Hummer.B.M..jpg

It belongs to La Ertzaintza which is the police in the Basque Country.

Do they use that tough Hummer because of those Basque terrorists? The Royal Ulster Constabulary, which used to police Northern Ireland (where there has been a lot of friction over the years) used armoured cars like Land Rovers.

The London Metropolitan Police was once lent a Lamborghini Murcielago in police livery, but I don't know if it actually did any service, maybe it was just a show car. The government's critics would go mad if public funds were spent on exotic supercars for police forces, never mind how much fighter planes and warships cost.

If you want to see pictures of all kinds of British emergency services vehicles, past and present, visit this site: http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/