New York Cops get Cute Police Cars

The latest addition to New York's Finest's vehicle fleet is the diminutive smart fortwo.

smart forcops

It's the smart forcops.

At least that's what smart USA is calling the latest version of its fortwo - one that's been specially modified for use by the New York City police department. According to the manufacturer, it's delivered the first 100 vehicles to New York's Finest, and the department has ordered an additional 150.

That's a total of 250 smart fortwos that will augment the department's current 9,000 vehicle fleet used for law enforcement in the city's five boroughs. The primary reason for picking the tiny smart fortwo, believe it or not, was comfort.

Yes, you heard that right, for comfort.

That may sound odd but, as it turns out, the fortwos will not be replacing the larger police cruisers currently in the department's fleet that range in size from sedans to bit SUVs. Instead, they'll be replacing the three-wheel motorbikes previously used by officers.

Deputy Commissioner Robert S. Martinez, who leads the Support Services Bureau (SSB) of the New York police, chose the smart fortwo because it is "agile, spacious and reliable." And while "spacious" is certainly a relative term when it comes to the smart, they do possess another very important feature duly noted in the press release: "unlike the three-wheel motorbikes used to date the smarts have air conditioning, making work easier for the police on patrol duty in the hot New York summer."

So there you go.

NYPD smart fortwo: special equipment and cute, too!

The NYPD's smart fortwos, as you might expect, also have their share of law enforcement-specific equipment including, but not limited to, the requisite blue revolving roof lamp as well as police radio equipment.

So how do the cops who use them feel about it?

Here's what the release had to say:

Officer Ralph Jefferson, who took receipt of one of the first smart fortwos and drives it around Chinatown, is very pleased: "The smart is spacious and agile and makes my job much easier. Many people say that the little patrol cars are really cute, too."