In my law enforcement career, I’ve had the opportunity to drive many different patrol vehicles, most of them Chevy Caprice 9C1 and Ford Crown Victorias. There were a few unique vehicles mixed in, including a Chevy IROC Camaro, Chevy Suburban, and Jeep Cherokee, but the first great cruiser I ever piloted—and my second favorite overall—was a 1986 Chevy Caprice 9C1 while serving with the Geneva-on-the-Lake Police Department.
While I’ve driven more Crown Victorias than Caprices, I’ve always enjoyed the Caprices more. The Chevys were always faster off the line than the Fords. This wasn’t my first experience patrolling in a Chevy Caprice. Prior to becoming a police officer, I was employed as a security officer patrolling businesses and apartment complexes in a Chevy Caprice. That Caprice was equipped with a Federal Signal Streethawk lightbar, 2-way radio and a car phone, but it wasn’t a police car. I loved the 9C1 Caprices so much that I’d occasionally stop by a Chevy dealer on Mayfield Road in the Mayfield Heights/Lyndhurst area just to look at the used police cars they had for sale.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol would offer their retired cruisers to other agencies at a discounted price before sending them to auction. When the state switched to the Federal Signal Jetsonic lightbar, police agencies could purchase the cruisers with the old Yankee lightbars still on them. When I joined the police department in 1989, they had an old Ohio State Highway Patrol LTD Crown Victoria that they had purchased with a red Yankee 911 lightbar on it as shown above. They simply installed a new police radio and added their own logo to the door.
That cruiser had two chrome toggle switches on the dash; one turned on the lightbar, and the other one turned on the takedown light. You couldn’t operate the rotators and stationary flashers separately. These bars had huge rotators inside with large PAR 36 halogen bulbs and made a lot of noise as they spun. In cold weather, the driver’s side rotator would stop spinning. When it did, I would roll my window down, smack the side of the bar with my hand, and the rotator would start spinning again. I didn’t care. I was 21-years old and fulfilling my dream of being a police officer.
Then something glorious happened. The police department acquired a silver 1986 Chevy Caprice 9C1 with a Buddy Bumper push bumper. I don’t know where the car had come from, but it definitely wasn’t from the Ohio State Patrol. If I recall correctly, one of our part-time officers was working with a company that was selling police equipment and managed to get the department a new Code 3 MX7000 lightbar. The Caprice had a Code 3 Model 710 headlight flasher and the lighting was all controlled by a Code 3 V-Con siren. The cruiser also had a rectangular Unity spotlight which wasn’t very common, metal dividing screen, and bars over the rear door windows.
In 1989 the police department also changed their uniform shirts and the shoulder patches. They had been wearing the same black shirts that the Sheriff’s department were wearing and were told that they had to switch to a different style of shirt, so they switched to a light blue shirt, and designed a new patch for a new look. At the time, a lot of vehicle signage was hand painted instead of cut vinyl, and the door and markings on this car were hand painted by a sign shop in Geneva. I don’t understand why the sign shop didn’t trim the door logo in red like the patch, but it was a beautiful car when it was done. Especially for a police department that had very little money to work with. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that the car was all silver, and the police department had someone paint the roof blue and add the blue stripe down the side before having the signage put on.
I’ve used a variety of lightbars in my career, but the MX7000 was by far my favorite. It had a great look, and I loved the way the white light from the intersection sweeps used to sweep back and forth across the road in front of you. It definitely got people’s attention. I liked the lightbar so much that I rebuilt an old MX7000 lightbar as a tribute using the specs of this MX7000 lightbar.
You can see my tribute build of this MX7000 lightbar at: GOTL Code-3 MX7000 Lightbar
I worked for the police department for a year before I joined the highway patrol. My career in the highway patrol would start out in a 1989 Chevy Caprice 9C1. It didn’t have the cool features as my former police car had, but somehow the ‘STATE TROOPER’ lettering across the back of the trunk lid made up for it.
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1986-1990 Chevrolet Caprice 9C1
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About The Author
Code 3 Garage
I started my career as a police officer in 1989 with the Geneva on The Lake Police Department. I worked part time as a police officer and full time as a Security Sergeant doing armed mobile security patrols for a local security company. In 1990 I became a State Trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. During my career as a State Trooper I was certified as a Technical Crash Investigator, OPOTA Police Instructor, OPOTA Police Driving Instructor, LASER Instructor, and received awards for ACE (Auto Larceny) and Post Trooper of The Year. Code 3 Garage is a mix of my inner automotive gearhead, and public safety background. I hope you enjoy it!
