I Asked Police Departments Why They Still Use Old Ford Crown Victorias. Here’s What They Told Me

From the biggest cities to the smallest towns, in private ownership and in public service, the Ford Crown Victoria was once a ubiquitous sight on American roads. After its discontinuation in 2011, though, its numbers were destined to dwindle, and dwindle they have. Police have largely supplanted them with the Explorer and Dodge Charger, while taxi fleets are now a more eclectic (if less iconic) mix. The Crown Vic has lost the throne—but that doesn’t mean it’s gone yet. Far from it, in fact.

Though the workhorse-sedan is not as common as it once was, numerous police departments around the United States are still holding on to their venerable Vics. With newer and more efficient cruisers available, why haven’t many departments gotten with the times? Do they just like the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor — the P71 — that much? Here’s what I learned after calling departments around the country.

How The Ford Crown Victoria Became The GOAT Of Police Cars

The Crown Vic’s status as America’s quintessential fleet vehicle traces its roots back decades, to a revival of the Crown Vic name on the new, Panther platform-based 1980 Ford LTD. Originally a trim package for the 1955 Ford Fairlane (with the “crown-of-chrome” stainless steel-trimmed sunroof and A- and B-pillars), Crown Vic returned as a suffix for the LTD.

Ford had marketed the LTD toward fleets for years at that point, competing against Chrysler’s M-platform and GM’s B-body full-size sedans for police, taxi, and other livery sales. Eventually, the Crown Vic would come to dominate this market, and that seems to come down to two main reasons.

For one, Chrysler’s contenders were unibody rather than body-on-frame like Ford’s and GM’s offerings. The latter two’s more truck-like construction made them more durable and easier to fix, which counts for a lot in the grueling lives that police cars live.

Though Ford and GM continued to duel over fleet sales with body-on-frame sedans into the mid-1990s, GM seemingly saw the writing on the wall, and killed the B-body to make room for GMT400 truck and SUV production at Arlington Assembly. The unibody Chevrolet Impala and Caprice still found some success in fleets, police included, but the Panther was crowned king (or I guess queen).

And so its reign lasted, from 1996 until 2011 when Ford finally pulled the plug. The more than 30-year-old Panther platform was a dinosaur even by the mid-2000s, which saw retail sales start to trail off while fleet sales remained strong. Between the public increasingly favoring SUVs, the 2008 recession hurting full-size car demand, and stability control becoming mandatory for 2012 models, the Panther platform’s time had come. It was succeeded by the Dodge Charger as police departments’ staple sedan, and by the Explorer as their favorite Ford.

Crown Victorias Are Tough And Easy To Fix

Now, many years past the Crown Vic’s heyday, these sedans are a comparatively uncommon sight on American roads. Those that remain are getting increasingly dilapidated, with fleets liquidating surplus Crown Vics whose useful service lives have all but been wrung out of them. But remain they do, despite the availability of the larger Explorer Police Interceptor Utility and (until recently) abundant Charger Pursuit. They’re hanging on for the same reason they became a fleet favorite in the first place: They’re tough-as-nails.

Nobody can attest to this better than one of the Crown Vic’s biggest remaining operators, the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center. The Autopian previously visited FASTC (pronounced “fast-C”) to cover its tactical driving training programs, which are elemental in keeping our nation’s diplomats safe abroad. While many government agencies are ridding themselves of their aging Crown Vics, FASTC is actually snapping up those old cars because they’re still the best option for the Center’s full-contact training regimen. We’re talking PIT maneuvers, countering a PIT, high-speed reverse driving, J-turns, breaking through roadblocks, and more—every skill you’d need to survive the worst day of your life.

FASTC Unit Chief Mark Perkins explained that the facility sources its Crown Vics through a local scrapper, who scoops them up from civic or police surplus auctions. (Many are also former school district fleet vehicles.) In his words, “we literally buy every one we can get our hands on” because of what happened when FASTC first tried using unibody vehicles after Panther-platform production ended.

“We first began experimenting with unibody platforms like the [Ford] Taurus police interceptor and other similar cars about a decade ago, but quickly came to recognize that the suspension pieces and pick-up points on the chassis were not as strong,” Perkins told me. “Things like upper wishbones, track rods, and knuckles just are not strong enough when you start banging cars together, they tend to bend with the punishment we put them through.”

When it comes to taking a hit, it seems there’s no contest between a Crown Vic and something like a Dodge Charger (shown below). Not only are they unibody, but they have more complex suspension, with independent multilink rear axles as opposed to the Panther’s coil-sprung solid axle. But FASTC does use Chargers, with more than eighty 2019 and 2022 models dedicated to high-speed and vehicle dynamics training programs. Their bodies aren’t subject to the same punishment, but their drivetrains are, and they’re holding up well, even in comparison to the P71.

“To date, they have been very reliable overall,” Perkins said. “They have needed a handful of rear differentials rebuilt, one engine and various suspension and brake components, but overall have had a very good track record for us.”

Perkins couldn’t speak to the durability of the Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility, which his unit doesn’t use. They may be popular with police (more on why and with whom later), but their high center-of-gravity means they’re not optimal for high-speed or full-contact training. The rollover risk just isn’t worthwhile for the FASTC. Chevrolet Suburbans, on the other hand, are popular with both municipal and federal authorities, and they too have a good track record according to Perkins. “There have been a few engines and transmissions, but their age range is much greater as we have 2006 models all the way up to 2023s, so some of them have been in service for a long time and seen a whole lot of action,” he said.

“Due to the age of the [Crown] Vics, we get the usual check-engine lights and replace coil packs, fuel pumps and a number of transmissions.”

“A lot of times when we buy them, they have been sitting for some time, so the fuel pumps are gelled up, but a new pump is pretty cheap and with a fully equipped shop and excellent technicians, it’s a simple fix,” Perkins continued. “When something does break on a Vic, getting things replaced is generally cheap and easy versus more modern vehicles where some parts need to be coded and matched with the vehicle.”

“Again, based on the age of the cars and the 95-105º temperatures we have here in the summers, transmissions are probably one of the bigger failures we have, but there really aren’t a huge number of them,” he said. “Our shop has gotten pretty adept at doing a quick transmission rebuild, so we have them sitting on the shelf ready to go if we have a failure.”

Of course, the brutal lives FASTC’s Crown Vics live takes its toll. There comes a point where they’re not worth fixing, and that’s when they’re taken out to pasture. This day will come for all the Center’s Crown Vics, at which point they’ll have to resort to using the in-some-ways less-rugged Chargers.

“It is normally when they get too smashed-up for the doors to stay closed, or the frame has been pounded back from ramming to the point that the steering gets too tight, or the steering joint snaps at the rack from the front suspension being pushed towards the rear of the car,” Perkins said. “We really prefer rear-drive platforms for multiple reasons, so as we move forward, we will at some point end up switching over to the Chargers by necessity because there just won’t be any Vics left out there, they are already getting harder to find.”

Crown Vics Keep Holding On, So Police Departments Keep Them

In short, Crown Vics’ longevity can mainly be attributed to their sturdy bodies, reliable powertrains/drivetrains, and ease of maintenance. This basic durability is the chief reason why Crown Vics remain in service with departments across the nation; they’re still around because they’re reliable, and if they’re still around, you might as well use them. Such is the case for police departments in cities like Kansas City, Missouri and Las Vegas, Nevada. In fact, a spokesperson for the former indicated no special preference for the Crown Vic at all.

“We do still have Crown Victorias in our fleet,” commented Officer Alayna Gonzalez, Public Information Officer for the Chief’s Office. “We have very few remaining as the car is not manufactured any longer, so our updated fleet consists of Ford Explorers, Ford Tauruses, Dodge Chargers, and Dodge Durangos.”

“I can’t say that we have a preference of [the] Crown Victorias over other vehicles,” she said. “We update our fleet with what is available from the manufacturer and is most useful for department needs.”

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s spokesperson also confirmed to me that their department still has a dozen cars in service, though they did not elaborate on why (or respond to further inquiry). As for the duties they serve, some are retained only for ceremonial or parade use, or are preserved in the museums of larger departments.

Portsmouth Police Department in Rhode Island has one Crown Vic left, which it uses for traffic details, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department uses its famous stockpile of Panther bodies for the full spectrum of police duties. Some of the fondness I perceived when talking with police departments comes down to what the Public Information Officer for the Portsmouth Police Department in Rhode Island said: “It’s a generational thing.”

“People that came up with the Crown Vics were certainly attached to them, and the younger kids coming up with the Explorers kind of never really had them,” he explained to me. “I’ve been on [the force] for 19 years now, and I personally love the Crown Vic. Obviously, that’s what I came up with. To me, it just feels like a police car, you know what I mean?” Like so many law enforcement agencies, the Portsmouth Police Department has mostly traded its Crown Vics for Explorers, whose popularity is also well-earned. That said, the Crown Vic seems to have been (at least anecdotally) a more reliable vehicle than the Police Interceptor Utility.

“I would say that the Explorers are probably much more purpose-built,” the PPD’s PIO continued. “You can put more equipment in them, [they’re] easier to transport prisoners [in], probably a little bit more comfortable, particularly for our larger, taller officers.”

“Powertrain durability-wise, I don’t recall as many issues with Crown Vics as we see with the Explorers. As they’ve changed transmissions over the years, [with] more gears, more speeds, I feel like the newer transmissions seem to be a little bit more problematic. But I would say just from a general durability standpoint, I feel like Crown Vics were a little bit better.”

Similar reasons were given by a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, who previously spoke with me about its fondness for the Crown Vic. The LASD famously stockpiled 600 Crown Vics before the sedan’s discontinuation in 2011, citing it as a proven rugged platform. These cars have held up especially well in California’s car-friendly climate, and as a result, they still had more than 400 units when I last spoke to them. Like up in Rhode Island, Lieutenant Robert Furman of the LASD’s Fleet Management Bureau reports that there’s a generational preference. Older officers prefer the Vic, while younger members of the force tend to favor the Explorer. But Lieutenant Furman also proffered another reason for the Crown Vic’s deferred retirement: Money.

“We simply don’t have anything to replace them with,” Lieutenant Furman told me. “Since 2019, budget cuts have significantly hampered our ability to replace the beloved Crown Victoria with the new generation Ford PIU explorers. The production challenges during and post-COVID didn’t help any. When we did have a budget, it was difficult to get our orders delivered.”

It is worth noting that the LASD’s budget cut claims are, according to the LA County Chief Executive Office, “not a reality.” Aside from a one-off cut to all city programs during the COVID peak (amounting to 0.2 percent of the LASD’s annual budget), it seems the department’s budget has increased every year since 2017—from $3.2 billion in the financial year 2017-18 to $4 billion for the financial year 2023-24 according to The Los Angeles Times. Still, it’s not hard to see why accountants would hesitate to earmark money for new Explorers for a department that publicly squirreled away hundreds of (arguably more reliable) Crown Vics that are still usable. 

Long Live The Crown Victoria

Image: Knoxville Police Department

But while the Crown Vic may still be holding on in every corner of our country (aside from the rust-belt, where the Crown Vic — like many vehicles — tends to succumb to rust), its grip is slipping. The parts supply is thinning out, and it’s a main threat to the Crown Vics that still serve the LASD. They’ll probably be able to cannibalize parts cars to keep their Crown Vics on the road for plenty of years to come, but these historic sedans will answer their final dispatches much sooner for many smaller departments.

All things must end, and even the best of tools will eventually break, become obsolete, or both. The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is suffering both, and in a matter of years might be thought of like a Nokia cell phone. They may be antiquated, but both are enduring symbols of a time when things seemed to be built to last. As flexible as our smartphones and Ford Explorers are today, it’s hard to see them aging as gracefully as the enduring king of all fleet vehicles.

Long live the king. Or, Queen…