August 2011 Dallas Police Shield

August 2011 Dallas Police Shield

Facebook lost 6 million users last year in the U.S. I have my opinions about the social networking device but that doesn’t matter. Before it implodes like the British publication “News of the World” and in the meantime the DPD FB page recently showed pictures of the department’s squad cars since the early forties. Yes, we had black-and-whites before the new Chargers!

Here are some personal DPD squad car memories for what it’s worth. Remember the gum ball Vis-A-Bars that your had to hit with your flashlight to make them turn? The term Vis-A-Bar was a brand name. No matter what the City bought later, to most officers during this time, the thing on top of the car was called this.

The dreaded and damaging City car washes would roll over the bars, press them down, and the chains inside that turned the lights would finally slow down due to friction of the bent bars. Nobody found a way to straighten the bars either! We finally went from all red to red and blue around 1982. Officers really wanted the blue lights. Many D.I.S.D. squad cars mysteriously went from all blue lights, to red and blue! Speaking of the killer car washes, if they ever worked, the one at Central had oil that it would spray all over the car. It would harden later and was hard to get off.  

In 1973 I was involved in a wreck downtown. I was 17 but remember the “Freeway car” that showed up. The Traffic officer had a white hat on, the car had a blue hood and trunk, the rest of the car was white. It also had a full length Vis-A Bar! To my Grove raised mind, he looked pretty cool! Plus, he charged the other guy with the wreck since the officer was also from the Grove. Kind of kindred spirits!

When I hired on we drove 1977 Pontiac Le Mans. These had red bucket seats. The year before, the 1976 Le Mans had blue bench seats. The reason for the buckets is so you and your partner would have one less thing to dislike about each other. That being how far the seat was pushed back! These were great cars. We used to turn over the air cleaner and it sounded really cool to us 21 year olds! The garage people repeated said don’t do that and threatened us with ratting to our supervisors since they said it would screw up the timing, plugs, tires, first born, you name it.

My first squad car with a full length Vis-A-Bar was a 1985 Plymouth Gran Fury. This car was the first DPD squad car to have an AM-FM good time radio! Wow we thought we were up there with the L.A.P.D! The radio shop installed my first computer during the Fair about 1987 in this car. I knew one Tactical officer that received a 1983 Dodge Diplomat. This may have been a mid-year or test car, since there were not many on the department. It had an AM goodtime radio. I believe that this may have been the first (marked at least) squad car to have anything other than a police radio.

Then there was the infamous 1975 AMC Matador. Maybe the worst car in the history of the DPD. The air conditioner was great but the interior had a cheap plastic smell. It was slow as hell. Of course the police equipped Matador that was shown to the City buyers had all the go- fast stuff. But equally of course the City went the cheap way out and bought the librarian version.

The 1979 Chrysler Newport’s had police radios and switches that were mounted sideways. I always wondered what City whiz-kid thought this up. The unit was attached to the dash instead of the floor for some reason. In 1980 it was relabeled a Gran Fury, both were good cars. This was another car that had the turn over the air cleaner option! Before that there was the big, big 1978 Plymouth Gran Fury that had a shotgun mount under the dash that made it almost impossible to retrieve the weapon if you needed it fast.

Next month, the best squad car the DPD ever mistakenly bought.

W.H.Croom, II #3973 retired. www.asylummobilitarium.blogspot.com