Decades ago I drove a cab. Our company bought old police crown victorias and put them into service. The cars would all come with the original keys used by the police.
That's when I learned about "fleet keys." Lost keys and service is a bitch, so, you just have all the locks on all the cars use the same key. That way any cop car key works for any cop car. So any one key would work for any one of our cabs.
They would also work for some of our competitors cabs if they also had the crown vics. Late at night you'd cruise around and if you spotted an empty competitor cab at a gas station or outside a bar or something you'd hop out, start their car, and move it around the block for them.
Anyways.. cop cars to this day still use "fleet keys." You can just buy them anywhere:
Their SOP is also usually to leave vehicles running with keys in on scene, so other officers can move them as needed to get other emergency traffic in and out. You can't go on a wild goose chase for Officer Schmuckatelli to make him move his cruiser so the ambulance can get in.
Both things make sense in their context, it's just crazy that there's nothing to mitigate the fact that any asshole can hop in a squad car and go.
"The first 4 times I pulled the handle didn't work, but maybe if I yank on it a 5th time it will finally open ..."
"There goes the next chief of police."
You can literally see her remember she has a gun.
Goes to pull it but is way too late.
How these cars don't have kill switches in them is beyond me.
Police cruiser thefts are on body cam channels all the time.
It is strange to me that remote kill systems aren't common.
Decades ago I drove a cab. Our company bought old police crown victorias and put them into service. The cars would all come with the original keys used by the police.
That's when I learned about "fleet keys." Lost keys and service is a bitch, so, you just have all the locks on all the cars use the same key. That way any cop car key works for any cop car. So any one key would work for any one of our cabs.
They would also work for some of our competitors cabs if they also had the crown vics. Late at night you'd cruise around and if you spotted an empty competitor cab at a gas station or outside a bar or something you'd hop out, start their car, and move it around the block for them.
Anyways.. cop cars to this day still use "fleet keys." You can just buy them anywhere:
https://easykeys.com/Ford_0001X-1706X_0124X_Key_Lock.aspx
Their SOP is also usually to leave vehicles running with keys in on scene, so other officers can move them as needed to get other emergency traffic in and out. You can't go on a wild goose chase for Officer Schmuckatelli to make him move his cruiser so the ambulance can get in.
Both things make sense in their context, it's just crazy that there's nothing to mitigate the fact that any asshole can hop in a squad car and go.
Nice.