Well, there was never anything “secret” about police car packages and options.

What used to be known as “interceptor” engines stopped being offered by the beginning of the 1980’s. I believe Chrysler was the last one, which offered the E58 option in 1979, which was a 360 V8, with a lot of valvetrain and cooling upgrades, not for more horsepower, but for improved durability. It actually had lower compression than a standard 360 V8, but almost all of them came with full dual exhausts and a spread bore 4-bbl. carburetor. The heads used 2.02 intake valves and were similar to the “X” or “J” heads also.

The reason for the change was a major shift in how police handled interception. Previously, vehicle performance was a major factor, as police were fully expected to chase people, often at high speeds, catch them and try to outmaneuver them. Ultimately if the person wouldn’t stop on their own, the police were trained to crash their cars into them using a pit maneuver, causing damage and sometimes death.

Today, with several high-profile police pursuits that went sideways and killed or injured bystanders, or damaged property, police use less dangerous tactics. This of-course includes radio coordination, road blocks, spike strips, helicopters, vehicle cameras and more.

Often, they will simply covertly monitor the suspect from the air, and allow the patrol cars to fall behind. The suspect will often slow down as a result, increasing the margin of safety. Once the car stops, the cops will move in safely and grab them.

I’ll explain the situation in Philadelphia, Pa.

Philly police use Ford’s. The Taurus for the squad care and Explorers. At the Ford factory these cars go down a special assembly line to be equipped with high performance engines, transmissions and suspension.

I worked for a dealership who has a contract whereby Ford would deliver to the dealership an order of police cars in white. No strips, badging or logos. The cars did not have their computers or computer racks installed. No light bars on the roof or flood lights on the doors.

No armored glass or door armor. A group of us would drive these cars to a specialty shop just outside of the city. The shop would install the computers and the racks to hold them, the light bars, flood lights with related wiring, door armor and armored glass in the doors.

A group of us would then pick up these cars and return them to the dealership. Later we take the same cars and drive them to the city’s collection point where an on-site shop would mark them up with all decals and logos and license plates. I drove many Philadelphia police cars and everything about them feels heavy duty.

The engines have greater power then stock power. The transmissions shift with authority.

They take a beating on the city streets that would cause their stock counterpart to fall apart.