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New BPD cruisers coming, but hopefully they'll be changing the license plates first

New BPD cruiser in West Roxbury

Chris Casey spotted this sparkly new District A-1 Boston Police cruiser today on Centre Street in West Roxbury, wonders why BPD couldn't find a dealer closer than New York to buy them from.

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all police cruisers now look like they came packaged with a special-edition Hess Truck?

Whatever happened to the design of police cruisers that made people go, "Uhoh, the fuzz?"

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It's Futura Black. From Wikipedia:

Released in 1929, Futura Black is an alternate design that uses stencil letter forms. The public safety departments (Police, Fire, EMS and others) of Boston, Massachusetts use Futura Black as a typeface for their department vehicles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_%28typeface%29

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Blech. Still at a loss for why they got rid of the iconic Boston font from the 80s/90s, forever memorialized by the Bosstones:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/The_...

I was in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, and their cruisers use the old font. Mem'ries!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcgervey/3708785865/

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Yeah, I was hoping they would bring back the stencil font. Now they look like AnytownPD. Sad.

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There are a few A-1 cruisers that are still the old Crown Vic's, and still have the old font. I don't know if they're only ceremonial or something, but they're definitely kept nice and shiny.

I personally like the Chargers a lot for police vehicles...definitely a vehicle that makes an impression.

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I agree on the Chargers, but I can tell you that the State Police and other departments have rejected them as fleet vehicles because of an issue concerning the configuration after the requisite dividers between the front seat area and backseat were installed. I believe that the interior cabin was just not large enough to accommodate the dividers and a Trooper up front and a "passenger" in the back.

That said, the SP has a few of them, often used in speed enforcement on I-91 in western Mass., and they are pretty sweet looking.

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I wish I had some Kinder Words for the new logo.

Incidentally, Concord and several other suburban departments still use the "stencil" font for their cruisers.

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Anyone know why currently Boston and Brookline cruisers are almost identical?

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Not only is it hard to tell Boston from Brookline/Cambridge/Somerville, but it's also hard to tell the "real" police from the University PDs.

The BUPD, NUPD, NU Security that Isn't PD, MITPD, etc., all have nearly identical cruisers as well.

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Cruisers are often bought in large quantities by municipalities who just need to add their city/town name - which is why they sometimes have similar paint schemes

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My guess is that it is a "stock" paint job that is cheaper (economies of scale, etc.). That's why so many towns now have similar looking police vehicles.

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Are we sure that this isn't a movie prop car for "The Heat" that's been filming? Boston's never had spotlights either, and this would explain the NY plate..

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BPD honcho Daniel Linskey tweeted a photo of one yesterday.

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This looks like the Chevy Caprice PPV featured in the new issue of Motor Trend. If so, it's built in Australia.

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Back in the day (as seen on TV shows like Dragnet, Adam-12, Hawaii-5-0) police cars did not have lavish paint jobs, simply black and white. So now, BPD seems like it wants to look more cool and get on more TV shows and movies. What is next? Designer uniforms?

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over a standard body color than to paint a small number of vehicles in the old "black and white" schemes.

Which is also an important consideration given that most agencies and municipalities now lease their fleet vheicles (yes, police cruisers included) instead of purchasing them outright.

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They could get away without paying sales tax this way.

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this is a mock up prototype. the other side looks completely different. the new york plate is a dealer plate for a demo.

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Saw it in WR as well. The roof lights weren't cabled to anything. All the cables came out of the lights, and were wrapped up in a plastic bag sitting on the roof.

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Almost looks like they have the car curb feelers (not sure when I last saw those). Wouldn't want to get too close to the curb.

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McPolice Cruiser

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