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NYPD Replaces Its Three-Wheeled Motorbikes with a Fleet of smart fortwos

We're used to seeing police cars equipped with bull bars and a lot of other features that make them more badass that we can't see such as more powerful engines and other things that make them faster or more resilient.
NYPD smart fortwo 10 photos
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Recently, though, the Los Angeles Police Department had been looking for an electric vehicle to add to its fleet, and after evaluating both a Tesla Model S and a BMW i3, it opted for the latter. The funny-faced German EV seemed to meet more of the Force's requirements than the larger and faster Tesla. That may sound surprising at first, but the truth is that electric vehicles are employed to fill a different kind of needs.

These cars will usually be used to patrol in city centers where a smaller footprint is an advantage. They also have to be able to squeeze through traffic more easily, even though no four-wheeled vehicle will ever be as good as a motorcycle at doing that. Finally, having low levels of emissions can also be beneficial since they're active in highly populated areas.

Taking all these things into consideration, the New York Police Department didn't feel ready to make the jump to battery-powered vehicles, but it did order a fleet of 250 smart fortwos from smart USA. 100 of them have already been delivered with the other 150 to follow shortly at an unspecified time.

The cars will be used by the Support Services Bureau (SSB) of the NYPD, and they come to supplement the impressive fleet of 9,000 vehicles already in use by the law enforcing agency. The fortwos look like they're pretty low spec lacking basic equipment such as alloy wheels or fog lamps, but they will still provide more comfort than the three-wheeled motorcycles they are replacing. Plus, they have air conditioning, which will prove a life saver during the hot summer months.

An officer named Ralph Jefferson who took delivery of one of the first cars had this to say: "the smart is spacious and agile and makes my job much easier. Many people say that the little patrol cars are really cute, too." A police car that's cute? Where is this world headed to?
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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