The cop-spec 2017 Ford Explorer, known as the Interceptor Utility, is by design pretty tough to pick out from the popular civilian version. Now the police vehicles will be blending in even better.
The main modification for next year is moving the red-and-blue flashing lights from a bulky bar strapped to the roof to a thin strip integrated with the windshield.
“This extremely low-profile unit is fully integrated where the headliner and top of the windshield meet, for tremendously improved driver visibility versus aftermarket alternatives,” Ford’s Police Marketing Manager Stephen Tyler explained in a press release.
Instead of a shade band that usually goes across the top of the windshield, these cop cruisers will get the LED bar you’re looking at here.
It can be programmed to run red/blue, all red or all blue at a range of brightnesses. Bright-white lights (called “takedown” or “scene” lights) are also tucked in there to provide officers with extra visibility.
Once somebody figures out how to conceal the “allen lights,” those aimable Mickey Mouse-ear LEDs near each rear-view mirror, this car will make police almost indistinguishable from somebody getting groceries.
When cops almost exclusively drove Ford Crown Victorias, they were always easy to pick out. Nobody else drove them besides cabbies and the occasional old person. Explorers are a whole different story though, Ford sold 224,309 of them to regular people in 2015. (24,942 additional Explorers were sold as Interceptors.)
I guess it’s a tough time to be a speeder! You’ve got a lot of mid-sized SUV silhouettes to get startled by now.
Hat tip to BrianGriffin!