Semi-Marked— 

Police Add Stealth SUV to Fleet

By Andrew Gorosko

Depending on how you look at it, in the form of one sport-utility vehicle, town police have acquired both a marked and an unmarked car for their patrol shift supervisors.

The police’s new 2004 Ford Explorer XLT replaces a larger 1997 Ford Expedition, which had racked up more than 140,000 miles on its odometer, said Lieutenant James Mooney, who supervises the police department’s fleet of rolling stock.

In the past, the motoring public could easily see the clearly marked Expedition coming from a distance, its bright yellow lettering on a dark blue field clearly indicating that it was a “POLICE” vehicle. The Expedition also held a big rack of emergency lights on its roof.

But things will be somewhat different when the Explorer approaches.

It bears large decal lettering indicating that it is a police vehicle. But when viewed in open daylight that lettering is quite similar in hue and tonal value to the vehicle’s dark blue color.

In the light of day, that lettering virtually blends into the vehicle’s dark blue paint job.

But when a direct light source, such as a set of headlamps shining in the nighttime, strikes the camouflaged lettering, the foot-tall letters bearing the legend “POLICE” glow brilliantly, as if they were internally lit, explained Lt Mooney.

The limited reflectivity of the lettering gives police the advantage of being inconspicuous in the daytime while being highly visible in the nighttime, he said. The vehicle can thus be used for radar speed traps in the daytime, and not be easily noticed, he said.

The SUV does not have an emergency lighting rack positioned on its roof, making it inconspicuous.

Most of the vehicle’s windows have a very dark gray tint, making the windows appear black when viewed from outside.

 A raft of brilliant red, white, and blue and light-emitting diode (LED) lamps are positioned within the SUV on the interior faces of its windows, so that when police need to make it known that the Explorer is a police vehicle, they flick a few switches, and what appears to be a sedate dark blue vehicle with black windows, turns into a lighting display akin to a Christmas tree on wheels, which is expected to draw plenty of attention to itself, when needed.

The LED lamps are especially brilliant, and thus are able to penetrate the dark-tinted windows that otherwise conceal their presence.

Also, the vehicle has inconspicuous strobe lights mounted in its snout and at its four corners to make itself very visible, when needed, Lt Mooney said.

The SUV will be driven by the sergeants who supervise the police’s various patrol shifts. The vehicle will not be used as if it were a normal patrol car, the lieutenant said.

Being somewhat smaller than an Expedition, the Explorer will be able to better navigate tight spaces, such as wooded areas where police travel on certain calls, he said.

The third row of seating normally in place in such vehicles has been removed to create space for large cases in which police store various emergency equipment. As now configured, the vehicle will hold five occupants.

The four-wheel-drive SUV is powered by a 4.6-liter engine. The SUV will be used to tow the police’s mobile speed display that is positioned in various parts to town to display the travel  speeds of oncoming motorists.

The Explorer should be especially useful in the wintertime during snowstorms, Lt Mooney said.

Police purchased the vehicle for about $28,000. The various equipment installed in it for police use adds several thousand dollars to its value, Lt Mooney said.