Sunday, April 09, 2006

Living in Beverly Hills....

So after years of rolling in the modified Chevy Tahoe's/Suburban's, the Beverly Hills PD last summer starting phasing in the Crown Vic's for the first time in a long time. I remember the old 1980s Crown Vics and the Chevy Impala's the department used to have (a la Beverly Hills Cop), but for the longest time they've been rolling in the SUVs.

Good things about the SUV = easy to spot the cops when driving through the city.

Bad things about the SUV = light bar scheme sucked--way too low profile and almost impossible to see from the rear. To alleviate the issue, they installed blue and yellow flashers in the upper part of the rear windows. Good idea on the lights. Bad idea on tinting those windows making the lights nearly invisible during the day.

But the new Crown Vics are sweet. Decent paint scheme, nice new LED low-pro light bars, tricked out strobe packages. Awesome flat-screen MDTs and some sort of crazy touch screen MDT or mini computer mounted to the facing the driver. Dont exactly know what it is.

Biggest problem: Cops are now tough to spot in traffic.

No good BHPD calls recently that I've heard.

As for the BHFD, as I've mentioned before, the new frontline engines in the fleet are sweet. And the new USAR is so over the top, it's ridiculous. Now, they just need to replace the aged Freightliner ambulances with the UGLY slanting patient compartments. Culver City has some sweet new Freightliner's that would be good for BH. Also, BH should number the rescues on the exterior like every other FD in the country.

That's what it's like, living in Beverly Hills.

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