California Highway Patrol Police Pursuit Vehicle Related

Clayboy

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Restorations seemed the best place to post this since there’s no “History” forum.

This might be of interest or use to someone on here, the general topic is California Highway Patrol Police Pursuit vehicles, specifically from 1976.

I know, in 1976 CHP purchased Dodge Coronets, which are B Body, but there’s a long history of C Body police vehicles so again, some of you may find it of interest. I am also on the ForBBodiesOnly site so will post there as well.

I am doing research on the 1976 CHP Coronet and my references are various documents provided to me by the California State Archives. So, this information is based off historical records, not what I or others think or believe.

What follows is from the CHP Annual Report of Accomplishments For 1976.
Under the heading of “Fleet Operational Costs” CHP set a goal to “Hold fleet operational costs to the lowest possible level.”
For 1976 CHP’s fleet operational costs in 1976 were $.165 per mile.

Listed under “Major Departmental Accomplishments – Cost Savings On Purchase of Intermediate Cars”
“During 1975-1976, the Department purchased 990 intermediate patrol cars. These cars cost $150 less than full sized cars and are expected to have a resale value of $625 more apiece than full sized cars. This is a savings of $775 per car. For the 990 cars, this is a savings of $767,250.”

Under the heading of “Operational Savings on Intermediate Cars”
“Intermediate cars can be operated .5 cents per mile cheaper than full sized cars. The Highway Patrol expects to drive approximately 52,402,680 miles in a year. This will result in a projected savings of approximately $262,013 per year.”

Under the heading of “Savings on Gasoline”
“As of June 30, 1976, there will be 46 operational fuel facilities installed supplying approximately 60% of the Departments gasoline requirements at wholesale bulk prices. Savings are averaging over $0.1206 per gallon. Total savings are estimated to be $750,000 for the 1975-76 fiscal year.”

From “The CHP Story – A brief history of the California Highway Patrol” from I believe 1978, in Chapter IV “The CHP in the 1970’s”
“On July 1, 1978, the California Highway Patrol had 5,127 uniformed personnel and 1,809 non uniformed employees. The 1,987 black and white patrol cars and 200 motorcycles contrasted with the 80 vehicles in [the year CHP began] 1929.”

And lastly, something for the C Body crowd, again from the Annual Report of Accomplishments For 1976 under the heading of “Refund from Chrysler Corporation”
“The CHP Fleet Information System at the Teale Data Center developed sufficient premature failure data to secure an $84,593 policy adjustment from Chrysler Corporation.”

“This represents reimbursement for an extremely high incidence of failures of the brake master cylinders, brake power boosters and mufflers on the 1974 Dodge Monaco patrol cars discovered by the Fleet Information System.”

Enjoy!
 
There are TWO Mopar Police Car books by Sannow. LOTS of information in them! You need to read BOTH of them, as the 2nd one if for more late-model vehicles (up to about 1980, with some information on prototype Turbo 2.2 fwd Daytonas and LH cars).

On some of the narrower LA-area freeways, they used B-body cars due to the bigger cars being a bit too wide for those roadways.

The "cost savings" were always a concern. When they got an ex-military fleet guy in the earlier 1970s or maybe late 1960s, one of the first things he did was to standardize as many of the different fluids the vehicles took as possible. In the car area, he started putting "20" weight motor oil in the engines AND automatic transmissions. With the instructions that should the car be in a high-speed pursuit situation, it come back in for oil changes as soon as possible.

It was noted that the TFs tolerated the motor oil just fine, but the GMs did not.

In the old www.allpar.com website, there were some "Mopar S\quads" storied by Redgap. Dating from the middle 1950s into the 1960s decade. His family was a "Master Dealer" that had contacts with most every Mopar fleet customer, over the years. Quite interesting information from a decade with Mopars were the premier police vehicles, with Ford being in 2nd place, and GM "somewhere else".

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
Thanks. I am familiar with Sannow’s books. However, in my search for a copy, used ones are going for upwards of $300, and usually in the mid $100 for a book I believe originally cost $19.99. I will look to see if I can get a copy at Carlisle, or just keep looking.
 
I bought mine when they were recent. Interesting as to the current prices!
 
Washington State Patrol bought some 75 Ford midsize cars (Torino's) for scale service and higher ups got them and the mid size Ford got worse fuel mileage than the 440 74 Monaco's.
 
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