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Illinois State Police Seized Hot Car and Kept It

Illinois State Police seized a high performance muscle-car and kept it for the personal use of an influential official. In January 2007, the troopers pulled over a suspected drunk driver in a 2006 Dodge Charger SRT-8 (which had an as-new base price of $38,000) and used a state seizure law to confiscate the vehicle.

And as any respectable institution, once completed the paperwork, the Charger  was handed over for the personal use of Ron Cooley, 56, none other than the Executive Director of the Illinois State Police Merit Board. Merit, what merit?

What’s even more disturbing is that, ironic as it may seem, taxpayers also pick up the fuel tab for this gas-eater muscle car as ‘Mr. Corrupt’ drives to and from work (or God knows where else) each day.

"The mission of the Illinois State Police Merit Board is to remove political influence and provide a fair and equitable merit process for the selection of Illinois State trooper candidates and the promotion and discipline of Illinois State Police officers," the board website explains.

The Charger is just one of two dozen desirable cars—including an Audi and a Cadillac Escalade—grabbed and kept by state troopers, as reported by thetruthaboutcars.com

The nerve this crime fighters wannabes have is even worse than we could have imagined. State police officials decline to identify the beneficiaries of the confiscated car policy claiming it could endanger officers if they made public the type of car they drove at taxpayer expense. Gee, we would have never thought of that... did they figure that out by themselves or did a 5-year-old kid help them?

The SRT8 is the modern equivalent of a 60's era muscle car with four doors. Its 6.1 liter V8 develops 425 horsepower, enough to propel this heavyweight in a little over 5 seconds to 100 km/h.
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