By Amanda Moses
At the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) the NYPD blue unveiled that they are turning green this summer with an all-electric police cruiser.
On April 13th, Inspector Scott Olexa, Commanding Officer of the Fleet Services Division stood in front of what he called the evolution of the NYPD cars, which included a 2008 gas cruiser, a hybrid Explorer from 2021, and the new fully electric patrol vehicle—the 2022 Mustang GT Mach-E, a fully electric vehicle with all-wheel-drive.
“We’ve come a long way since we started introducing police cars,” Inspector Olexa said, adding that there will be about a hundred electric police cars out on the streets this summer. “We should have all of them delivered by the summertime. And we’re going to put these throughout the various patrol precincts throughout the City of New York.”
Being an all-electric vehicle means that this new cruiser will have zero gas emissions. Olexa also stated that the technology within the car is also upgraded, allowing officers to utilize keyless entry into the vehicle as well as a LED dashboard, touch screen tablet, and police radio. The driver and passenger doors (as well as the windows) are lined with ballistic protection. The roof is also made of metal to protect officers from falling debris.
“We didn’t want to be in danger by having a glass roof. This version comes with a steel roof so that’s important to us. Also, with the lighting that we have this has a more robust DC converter, so we could use 12-volt power. So, to power up the lighting, the computers that we’re going to put in and any of the police equipment, this particular version car has a more robust charging system that allows us to do that without having to worry about or drain the battery too severely,” Olexa said.
In addition, Olexa said that the City of New York has a number of charging stations that the new patrol cars can utilize as well as several in secure department areas—allowing for a safe charge.
Photos by Amanda Moses
