In an effort to update its vehicles for the modern age, Idaho State Police has added nine Ford Mustang Dark Horse's to its fleet, along with upgrades across the department.
“We have six districts and each district is running one of the (Mustang Dark Horse) patrol cars,” Lt. Todd Orr said. “We use it for a lot of different things. We use it for parades. It's a full-time patrol vehicle assigned to one of our troopers. It's a fun car. It's a pretty car. Obviously, those kinds of vehicles help a lot with public interaction. When we go out, we stop places and talk to people. People just want to come up and they want to talk about the cars, but when they do that, it really opens up that dialogue between law enforcement the public, and that's really helpful.”
Each of the six Idaho State Police districts will each receive three Dark Horse Mustangs, though District 3, which services the Boise area, will receive three.
With Dodge moving away from the creation of Dodge Chargers, the state police are currently outfitting the last set of chargers that will go out to the fleet and moving onto other vehicles in addition to the Dark Horse.
“We have a few more Ford interceptor SUVs that will go out to the fleet,” Orr said. “After those, we will be evolving to the Dodge Durango and that will probably be the platform that ISP will be using for the foreseeable future.”
State police have also added Yamaha FJR motorcycles to its fleet in the Pocatello area that better serve as a motorcycle platform for the troopers.
“You have some of the agencies that run Harleys and everything, but for what we do and for what our motors need out on the interstates, the FJR platforms are a lot better for what we need,” Orr said.
In keeping with the technological changes of an advancing society, state police will also be evolving to axon camera systems in the patrol vehicles.
“It's more of a cloud-based system, so our guys don't have to be in the office as much for the uploads,” Orr said. “It's a continuous upload. There are always those changes that are that are going on.”
Idaho State Police have also transitioned from its stinger spike system to one called Stop Stick.
“It's just a safer tire deflation device,” Orr said. “It's a lot safer for everybody, particularly for the officers that are deploying, but also for the public, because they're encased and you're not going to lose spikes and stuff out on the roadways and things like that.”
The new spike system is unidirectional and deploys in a triangle shape and is much safer for the trooper to plant.
“One of the biggest things with those stop sticks is the cord for the reel, the rope if you will, is a lot longer, so our troopers can be a lot farther away from traffic while they do deploy them and that's our biggest thing. We don't want our troopers out there by the side of the road deploying tire deflation devices in an unsafe location.”
All of the new or repurposed vehicles the state police purchase go through an outfitter in Boise that prepares the vehicles for police deployment. New high-end radios, lights and equipment are put in along with kick screens. Strenuous quality assurance checks are done to ensure the vehicle is ready for action.
“It's quite a process to actually go through and get a police vehicle up and ready to go,” Orr said. “Anywhere from a week and a half to two weeks should get one vehicle outfitted and ready for the road.”
While the new mustangs are certainly fast and furious, permitting the ISP to handle any high-speed chase or traffic situation, it is always seeking properly trained troopers to handle these wild stallions of the freeway.
"One of the biggest things is, you can't run a car without somebody to drive it,” Orr said. “We're currently in the middle of recruiting cycle for an academy that starts in January and I know we're offering like a $2,000 hire bonus. But that's one of our biggest things, you can get the best, most amazing equipment in the world, but if you don't have good, qualified people to operate them, it doesn't do any good. We got a lot of really great folks that were currently work for us and do things, and we're looking to get more.”
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