Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The SUV-ification of Police Fleets
https://www.curbed.com/2022/10/nypd-all-suv-fleet-ford.htmlThe NYPD is on its way to becoming an all-SUV fleet. Announcing the news at the end of September, deputy commissioner Robert Martinez called the transition one of necessity and strategy: Ford — which has an $11.5 million, five-year contract with the department — has stopped making the “interceptor” sedans NYPD has used for years. Their replacement, a hybrid Ford Explorer SUV, will act as a placeholder until the city can take the 6,300-vehicle fleet fully electric with the Ford Mustang Mach-E — a small SUV that’s more like a station wagon. (The city bought 185 Mach-Es last December, but has been buying hundreds of Explorers every year.) The Explorer, technically the Ford Police Interceptor Utility Hybrid, with its larger profile and considerable height, is better suited to the job than the traditional sedan, Martinez told the New York Daily News. It “meets the mission,” he said, and is “safe for everybody.”
New York isn’t alone in the SUV-ification of its police fleet. Since 2017, more than half of all police vehicles sold in the U.S. are cop-customized Explorers. The country’s next-largest department, Chicago, has jumped on the oversize bandwagon, with Ford relocating the factory to the city to build the police Explorers right there at home. Across the U.S., police departments large and small are retiring their Crown Victorias in favor of new, often gargantuan, SUVs. An annual report by the Michigan State Police Precision Driving Unit, which tests new-model law-enforcement vehicles, tracks the trend: In 2010, two out of eight vehicles tested were SUVs, while in 2022, nine out of eleven vehicles tested were SUVs. Ford, which has contracts for more than half of the police vehicles in the country, doesn’t even make sedans anymore, meaning departments across the U.S. are all, at some point, destined for the same thing: bigger, faster cars.
Over the last ten years, as SUVs and trucks came to make up 80 percent of total new car sales in the country, pedestrian fatalities have increased dramatically, hitting the highest level in four decades. Nationwide, police car chases now kill more people than tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes combined. As those trends converge in the form of larger police vehicles — which are legally allowed to exceed the speed limit and perform other vehicular stunts civilians can’t — it presents a unique danger, says Alex Vitale, sociology professor at Brooklyn College and author of The End of Policing. “The research shows high-speed chases and maneuvering into vehicles endangers police officers, endangers people who are only wanted for traffic violations, and endangers random members of the public, especially in New York City where the density of pedestrians is so high.”
What Vitale is describing — using the police vehicle itself as a weapon — is what’s called a “PIT maneuver,” or “precision immobilization technique”: The officer behind the wheel uses the front end of their vehicle to stop a speeding car by ramming it sideways, known as “pitting.” Police deploying PIT maneuvers have killed 30 people from 2016 to 2020. In 2020, a pregnant woman sued Arkansas State Patrol after her vehicle was overturned by a trooper’s PIT maneuver during a basic traffic stop for speeding. In 2021, a 12-year-old boy was killed after a Georgia state trooper pitted the SUV he was riding in, flipping the vehicle. In 2019, an NYPD officer driving an SUV tried a similar technique on a cyclist who the officer claimed was riding “recklessly.” After ordering the cyclist to stop, the officer rammed the SUV into the cyclist so hard the Citi Bike got wedged in the wheel well. “You’re refusing to stop after multiple lawful orders that you acknowledged,” the officer says to the cyclist in a video recorded at the scene. “So I am going to use whatever means necessary to stop you, okay? And that’s for your safety.”
New York isn’t alone in the SUV-ification of its police fleet. Since 2017, more than half of all police vehicles sold in the U.S. are cop-customized Explorers. The country’s next-largest department, Chicago, has jumped on the oversize bandwagon, with Ford relocating the factory to the city to build the police Explorers right there at home. Across the U.S., police departments large and small are retiring their Crown Victorias in favor of new, often gargantuan, SUVs. An annual report by the Michigan State Police Precision Driving Unit, which tests new-model law-enforcement vehicles, tracks the trend: In 2010, two out of eight vehicles tested were SUVs, while in 2022, nine out of eleven vehicles tested were SUVs. Ford, which has contracts for more than half of the police vehicles in the country, doesn’t even make sedans anymore, meaning departments across the U.S. are all, at some point, destined for the same thing: bigger, faster cars.
Over the last ten years, as SUVs and trucks came to make up 80 percent of total new car sales in the country, pedestrian fatalities have increased dramatically, hitting the highest level in four decades. Nationwide, police car chases now kill more people than tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes combined. As those trends converge in the form of larger police vehicles — which are legally allowed to exceed the speed limit and perform other vehicular stunts civilians can’t — it presents a unique danger, says Alex Vitale, sociology professor at Brooklyn College and author of The End of Policing. “The research shows high-speed chases and maneuvering into vehicles endangers police officers, endangers people who are only wanted for traffic violations, and endangers random members of the public, especially in New York City where the density of pedestrians is so high.”
What Vitale is describing — using the police vehicle itself as a weapon — is what’s called a “PIT maneuver,” or “precision immobilization technique”: The officer behind the wheel uses the front end of their vehicle to stop a speeding car by ramming it sideways, known as “pitting.” Police deploying PIT maneuvers have killed 30 people from 2016 to 2020. In 2020, a pregnant woman sued Arkansas State Patrol after her vehicle was overturned by a trooper’s PIT maneuver during a basic traffic stop for speeding. In 2021, a 12-year-old boy was killed after a Georgia state trooper pitted the SUV he was riding in, flipping the vehicle. In 2019, an NYPD officer driving an SUV tried a similar technique on a cyclist who the officer claimed was riding “recklessly.” After ordering the cyclist to stop, the officer rammed the SUV into the cyclist so hard the Citi Bike got wedged in the wheel well. “You’re refusing to stop after multiple lawful orders that you acknowledged,” the officer says to the cyclist in a video recorded at the scene. “So I am going to use whatever means necessary to stop you, okay? And that’s for your safety.”
21 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I mean, I've been assaulted by the Crips and the Bloods and MS13 like, 5 times in the last week!
What a silly argument.
Cops have a minimal effect on preventing crime, and if you are being victimized by gangs like the 3 you mentioned, something is seriously wrong with the way you conduct your life.
Sheesh.
