They are movie cars !!! thats why they say metro police.

Greg,

Was there a law passed after 1980 that said that the vehicles have to say "Metro Police" instead of Chicago PD?

Greg:
My guess (due to the emblem on the door) is that it belonged to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Police. The door emblem has a large "T", the local term for the subway system in Boston. There is a pic on their webpage here:

http://www.mbtapolice.com/department/gallery.html

showing some past graduation or awards ceremony. If you look closely at the patches on their uniform you will see the "T" in the center of the emblem.

You can tell Hollywood...the movie company got their Mars Skybolt bars at a discount evidently...our DPS never used them and they were seldom seen off of fire engines in Texas.

During this era, Tx DPS used Federal Twin Model 14/17's with no exposed siren or were slick tops.

What kind of light bar ???
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It looks like a Signal-Stat lightbar, very similar to the setup that the NYPD
used in the mid 1970s.

Greg
copcar dot com

Nice rack..... I mean lightbar

Note the blower has no cog belt on it. The movie car ran the blower with an electric motor and a car underneath the blower shell. That one looks like nothing is hooked up the replica near me is a better setup which runs off the AC compressor so it whines like a real blower and you'd *swear* it was hooked up, also it can be turned on and off with a switch, which would be the AC switch normaly. The movie car only had one side pipe hooked up, and the real movie car is in the cars of the stars museum in england or london or some such. The car they blew up in road warrior was another car. I think total they only built two for the movies because of how low budget it was. They only had a single car for the first film. If you'll note the blower dosen't have a carb on top, the piece under the scoop is an old school dragster fuel rail. If it were real it wouldn't even run in a street car, it needs to be wide open to work. It's rarely seen but the movie car had a gloss/flat black finish paintjob. Dosen't look like that one has it though. That's a decent replica, but isn't the best I've seen :P

~Jay

These cars should not and will not make it as a pd car. I know of five major departments that have purchased impalas and have returned everyone of them before the first oil change. The lightweight and the quick engine make the car fast but the front wheel drive and the small amount of interior space really hurt this car.

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well, let's see. They debuted in 1999 and are still being sold to police agencies around the country. About half the cops who drive them like them and half don't when I talk to them. So I wouldn't be so quick to say they "will not make it as a pd car". Because obviously, they have.

Dave
copcar.com

i think alex is one taco short of a full-order, if you know what i mean...
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I think he's just the broken pieces of taco shell left in the Old El Paso box.

requesting any info on cars, uniforms, equipment carried for first novel based on two police men in chicago 1984. uniform police officers. thank you in advance

What type of cars are those?
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They were a mix of 1975 and 76 Plymouth Fury sedans. Some were ex-police cars and others were just regular sedans.

Greg
copcar dot com

What is a demonstrator car? Why is it just a demonstrator car? VERY NICE!!
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It was a demonstrator car because this was one that Chevy brought around the country to different police departments to evaluate for purchasing.

Greg
copcar dot com

GREAT PICTURES JUST WISH I COULD HAVE HAD 2202 CAR
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When that picture was taken in the summer of 1984, I was working for the company that built and owned those cars called Rolling Stock. Don't get your hopes too high about a tv prop car. Traditionally, they're only supposed to look good for the camera. Even at that time the bodies were mostly Bondo from being constantly repaired and repainted. The insides of the Chicago-based Hill Street cars were also trashed. One of them only had a sole bucket seat for the driver. The passenger side had a camera mount in place of a seat. The good cars used for the interior character shots were kept in California. The last time I saw 2202 was in 1997 and it was beyond repair. The other car in that picture, 2256 ended up at Victory Auto Wreckers in suburban Chicago in 1987. I saw it there with a Buick LeSabre resting on top of it.

Greg Reynolds
copcar dot com