My dept has the CSO's drive old police cruisers equipped with amber lights and "POLICE" replaced by "COMMUNITY SERVICE". The radios are from the late 70's early 80's, no repeater. Very old and must be nursed to keep functioning.

This is a problem I faced years ago. We did parking out of a right hand drive vehicle and the only replacement was a "postal vehicle", those little boxes the post office used years ago. They were horrible to drive - eveyone thought I worked for the post office instead of the PD.
The staff and command have no idea what driving a pile of junk makes an employee feel like. On top of that, they have no clue the citizens think it looks bad to be driving a pile of junk. We got a replacement and I had citizens come up to me and congratulate me for getting out of that piece of S**T. My reply was thanks and why didn't you call the PD and express your feelings that my vehicle was an embarassment to the city.

What dept do you work for? that sucks that they make you drive something so out of date, do the police officers have to drive outdated cars too? DO u have any pics?

I had a feature where I could have pictures but it went unused so I dropped it.
If others would like to post pictures, I will put it back up for us. I still think sharing pictures can help others show their staff and command that not every one drives junk.

Hi, we here in clearwater fl drive Dodge Ram full size and some dodge Puckups all are 2000-05 models and have computers, I hate that we have the yellow lightbar but other then that their cool vehicles, I used to work for HanoverPark Police Dept. in Ill. they drive regular PD cars like the sworn officers, Red and Blue and ALL..I think people dont pay attention to much when they see the Yellow compare to the Red/blue and that helps when you in a trffic Acc,. But the other guy that wrote about the bad image from riding ugly cars, well I think your RIGHT, sometimes "image" is everything in our job! BE SAFE TOO ALL !!

I believe you can tell how much staff and command value the CSO program by looking at the vehicle they drive. If, as in the case of Clearwater, Fl, they drive decent, well kept, vehicles, the department values the CSO's.
At the time that I drove a piece of junk, it was about the same time when a Deputy Chief told the whole department we would not be getting the computers the patrol officers were getting because we were "second eschelon" officers. Nothing like letting the whole department know the CSO's were a second class citizen.
(At one time my uncle was the president of the Bank of Clearwater and my grandparents moved there in the late 60's when they retired. Great beaches if I remember correctly.)

Wow, that sucks about your department experience. I'm glad to say I have'nt got that from any dept I've worked at, I do at times get the "cop" that sight with the citizen instead of the CSO when we call for help, and you can tell they only did it because they feel were nobodys compare to them, but I let a sgt know and the officer gets the picture. I learnd to nerver keep this in and let someone know, or there would never be a change..

All I would like to Put PICS of ours vehicles and stuff, and I'll pass on to others about this site, I think its great that we have this!! Intill recently I never realised how many people Want our job, till I moved here.

I work for the North Las Vegas Police Department and we have four vehicles for eight people. We have three Crown Vic second hand cop cars (two of which are CNG) with over 100k miles each on them an one new car, a Ford Taurus. Only the Taurus has a computer in it that allows us to run NCIC and send our reports into the station electronically. We been told for the past three years that we would be getting some more cars, but hey i'm not holding my breath over it.

I am from the Ankeny Iowa police department & we have 03 Chevrolet Z71, We have a mobil data terminal & yellow led light bar w/arrow stick & wigwags in front & back tail lights. We do a lot of Interstate operations. It is pretty big for what we do and seems to take lots of gas but 2 months ago when it was stationary on the interstate for a crash it was struck from behind at about 60 mph. The CSO operating it was ok & the damage amounted to about $5,400 to fix it. The way our truck sits up you can see the led bar for a long way & gives people time to get over if they are paying attention.

I just discovered this very cool site today.
I am a CSO in San Diego CA. For the past two years, I have been assigned to drive a 1990 Ford Aerostar. It is in such poor condition...rust, body damage and an engine that knocks as loud as a Fuller Brush salesman!

It is nice to hear other stories from those in similar shoes.

Ronna

Where I work here in oregon we drive the regular patrol vehicles. The new sheriff got us our own car because he came on a ride-a-long with me when we had a amber light bar and a honda civic to see what it was like, not in his uniform or in a suit. he wore what i wear, which is the regular deputy uniform. We went to a couple complaints and he watched me get the door slammed in my face and people telling me "oh whatever meter maid" at that time we didnt get to carry anything, no oc, baton, nothing but a radio. he got tired of seeing our troubles all day long so he implemented that we got "Deputy" badges and cars and we now carry oc, batons, tasers and if you are certified bean bag gun. in the county i work in we are really lucky.

I work at Northbrook and am driving a Crown Vic that was a commander's car before I got it. It only had about 17,000 miles on it and is in great shape. The only other CSO car is an old Tahoe which was one of the K-9 cars.

The bar use to be red and blue until a previous CSO was caught going hot and beating sworn officers to a crash. The next day the light bar was all yellow. That was about 5 years ago.

He's gone now and we have another CSO who is a retired cop. He said that we get no respect on the street and talked the department to adding at least the red back, so they're red & yellow. I couldn't believe the difference it made.

The cars are really in good shape and well equipped We have to get them washed every day.

I took a picture of the "death-trap"...I mean CSO van I drive. However, I don't think I can attach pic's on this site.

Ronna

Hello, i'd be interested to see what you drive, yahoo groups has a ste that you can post your pics, log on to them its communityserviceofficers and become a member its free also. good luck and be safe

Here in Minnesota the department that i work for has only two CSO's. We drive a '03 White Dodge Dakota 4 door truck. Its equipped with a red/blue Code 3 LED X bar on the top. We have red to the front and red & Blue to the rear, along with an arrow stick. We also have corner strobes in all four corners. The graphics on it have the City of Chanhassen on the doors with Community Service Officer on the lower rocker panels and then 911 decals on both back corners. And like the CSO from IA i too have had my squad hit while working a crash, however it only caused $3500 of damage to the truck but i believe thats one of the reasons we have all of the lights we do bc we all need to be seen.