The Crown Victoria

Ford has introduced its first ever police vehicle prep. package designed to ready production vehicles for law enforcement use.

Crown North America, a division of Leggett and Platt Inc., and a leading supplier of automotive conversion services and telecommunications enclosures, is to build an exclusive factory-approved conversion package for Ford’s Crown Victoria police interceptor.

“The pre-packaged interceptor greatly reduces the normal up-fitting time and costs for converting these vehicles, and saves on the unnecessary repairs resulting from the improper installation of equipment,” said Ron Anderson, Ford’s government marketing brand manager for North American fleet, lease and re-marketing operations.

The package includes the auxiliary items that are most often requested to fully equip police interceptors and is available to dealers throughout North America. The interceptor is covered by the standard new vehicle warranty and can be ordered as an individual factory option including:

Strobe bulbs installed in the front parking lenses and rear taillight lenses;

six shielded coaxial strobe conductor cables pre-run to front parking lenses, taillights and rear deck;

three waterproof isolator maxi fuses;

three power and three ground wires consisting of six #8 gauge wires pre-run to front and rear power control centres and coiled at the base of the B pillar for light bar installations;

GXL automotive-grade wiring that is protected by convolute and provides power for accessories where the siren warning is pre-run;

two power control centres including one in the glove box and one in the trunk, each of which houses 6 fuses, battery and accessory power;

a console mounting platform with powder-coated aluminium mounting plate pre-drilled for additional equipment; a large arm rest (for the long arm of the law? – ed.) mounted on the console;

a wide conduit to house and protect any additional wire run from the console to the trunk;

remote door-lock adapter to manually override of door locks for rear doors;

a trunk air circulation fan that pulls air from the passenger compartment and exhausts it through the trunk, stabilising the interior climate for equipment;

a permanent “Y” secure strap for restraining large items like a bicycle;

dual trunk storage boxes with clear view covers for quick access and a rear communications service tray that glides on heavy-duty tracks and is shipped with a secured spare tire.

Before the introduction of this package, multiple outside suppliers would install specific pieces of equipment on these law enforcement cars.

“An interceptor equipped with the prep. package comes off the Ford assembly line and is shipped to Crown’s St. Thomas plant, in Ontario, Canada, for a 48-hour turn-around where the proper modifications are made before the cruiser is shipped back to Ford,” said Maynard Lyman, Crown’s marketing manager.

“With the prep. package, the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is the closest thing law enforcement agencies could purchase to a completely marked police vehicle.”

Ford expects to build between 10,000 and 12,000 of the ‘pre-packaged’ police cars in the 2001 model year.

Since 1995, Ford has held approximately 80 to 85 percent of the North American market for law enforcement vehicle sales with the Crown Victoria police interceptor the market leader.