If he had been driving this particular unit that fateful
morning things definitely wouldn't happened like they did
because he would have been in Ohio away from the Stateliners

I didn’t realize that the Sheriff of McNairy County Tennessee drove an Ohio State Patrol car. pretty sneaky!

This car resembles the actual car that Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame was ambushed in on Aug 12 1967

Or if it isn't it sure does look like him.

The man on the right is Red Skelton!

I am not only a lifelong resident of Louisiana, I am also a Deputy Sheriff, and collector and restorer of LSP memoribilia. 45yoa. that said, I believe this is a actual LSP unit. However, I believe it is a 'rank' vehicle (capt,major,LTC). I also believe that it's normal appearance was as a unmarked supv. car, that was hastily marked with decals/lights for this event. 1987-88 was just when they were getting rid of the Whelen 80 bars, and the overhead spotlight. I bought many 87's with the spot mounted on the a-pillar. Supv. cars to this day may even be street colors with whitewalls. I know where a LSP x-o's unit is, a 2003 CV, dk green, street app pkg, full wheelcovers and WHITEWALL police spec tires. Probably went ahead and marked it for the trip because it had low miles, and knowing that shortly the 'new' 1988 Dk. Blue with gold stripe vehicles would be issued. Rank at HQ tend to get new things first. ALso, I agree with earlier post, no regularly marked, working LSP unit has ever had full wheelcovers and whitewalls. Unmarked rank only.

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Which is exactly what I said.... about freaking time you arrived for backup.

Dave Arnold
copcar.com

I have photographed multiple Louisiana units throughout the last 15 years (see my album for some ex.), however, as odd as this unit is, it is not surprising. I have seen LSP units with WHITEWALLS during the 1990's of the older 1980's cars like this one (I will see if I can dig out any photos, but I doubt that I ever WANTED to take a photo of LSP unit with whitewalls)....that were assigned to CAPITOL PROTECTION unit of LSP. These were also the guys that, on occasion, and along with the LSP Motorcycle Unit provided dignitary escorts.... It is my guess, that this is a LSP CAPITOL PROTECTION car that was loaned to a different trooper that was headed to DC, by the default of LOWER miles on this unit, and the trooper not wanting to take his regular car. Hope that helps...

If it is a captains car that is the reason you never saw it on the road and it is not equipped with a pushbumper and has differnt hubcaps. But were they still using the red lights in 87? I thought they had gone to blue by then.

Maybe they rented a Crown Vic and put the decals and lightbar on?
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That is entirely possible but not probable. Considering the Guam and Honolulu cars, it looks like there probably was a local dealer who loaned them a couple of Diplomats to mark... so why would an event coordinator who probably lined up the Diplomats go do double the work lining up a Ford? And, considering Mike said nothing about the light bar being wrong, would they just have gotten the correct bar by coincidence?

Louisiana isn't that far from DC. That would be an awful lot of trouble rather than just driving or having the car trucked. My guess stays with that car being an Admin car that was just marked for the event.

Dave

Sorry, Dude, this is an actual LSP vehicle. This was a gathering of state police agencies, not collectors, not restorers, not private people, in 1988 Washington DC. It is believed that this was for the signing of new death benefits for fallen officers.

Every one of these cars were authentic. The only ones that were not (that I can tell) were the Guam and Honolulu cars. It appears they were rented Diplomats with the dept graphics applied. It was probably easier to do than to ship one across the sea.

There are other strange anomolies with some of these pics. The Indiana unit, for instance. A car outfitted very differently than the usual ISP car. Think about it, the state sends a rep to this event. In some cases, it was PR officers, minorities, their newest car, etc. in order to look sharp, impress, whatever.

So maybe, this is some Captain who wanted to drive his regular car so he had the motor pool put the graphics and a light bar on it just for this event. But that is a real LSP officer (captain, whatever) and I would say it is a real LSP unit.

Oh, one more inaccurate thing about a Louisiana State Police unit I failed to note in my previous post about this picture, in addition to the absence of a remote spotlight, and those hideous full hubcaps and whitewalls. It has NO PUSH BUMPER! All inservice LSP patrol units have push bumpers, and have always had them, even the current units. The roof mounted antenna is about the only thing that is accurate however. The only way this vehicle was used by LSP is if it is either assigned to a supervisor or is an unmarked investigator's unit and was outfitted with magnetic signage and a removeable lightbar in order to have the picture made at this event. No marked Ford Crown Victoria patrol unit used by LSP ever looked like this.

I am a former police officer and have lived in Louisiana all of my 48 years of life. I have traveled all over the state to visit various agencies on occasion, especially to the state police headquarters and have seen their make ready and retired/wrecked/surplus fleet motor pool several times. I have never had the occasion to observe an inservice Louisiana State Police unit with full hubcaps and whitewalls. What was the occasion in which this picture was made? This is apparently some type of event in which a civilain restoration or an inaccurate mock up unit was used. One way to tell the inaccuracy, besides the hubcap and whitewall farce, is the lightbar does not have the remote control spotlight mounted on the speaker cover, as Louisiana is famous for. Just felt the need to set the record straight, as inaccuracies get to me sometimes.