New TPS cruisers

Yesterday I spotted the first of the new Toronto Police Service cruisers: the Ford Sedan Police Interceptor. The car is based on the Taurus sedan and the paint scheme and the light bar look pretty much the same as before on the Crown Vics.

I think it’s the first time the Toronto force chose a fairly modern machine for its general cruiser duty. When I first came to Toronto in 1982, the Metropolitan Police were using the Plymouth Gran Fury/Dodge Diplomat cars painted yellow. The cars were terrible performers and ugly as sin. The cops liked them for the room they offered, the service liked them for the easy and low cost maintenance. The public loved them, because they were so easy to spot in traffic.

The Toronto service continued to stick with the same formula, rear-wheel-drive full size sedans, until now. That’s what I call loyalty and respecting tradition! Well, it turns out that our police have had a very rich tradition right from the start! While looking up information on the Toronto force on Wikipedia, I was amazed how colorful and controversial their past has been. It reads better that the summary of the Corleone family saga from The Godfather.

Check out this gem: A provincial government report in 1841 described the Toronto Police as "formidable engines of oppression". […] After an excessive outbreak of street violence involving Toronto Police misconduct, including an episode where constables brawled with Toronto's firemen in one incident, and stood by doing nothing in another incident while enraged firemen burned down a visiting circus when its clowns jumped a lineup at a local brothel, the entire Toronto Police force, along with its chief, were fired in 1859.

Clowns jumping a lineup at a brothel! Can you believe it? Hollywood has a lot of catching up to do!