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After Less Than Two Years, Washington State Patrol Switching Back To Fords

Washington State Patrol
The Ford Interceptor is the Washington State Patrol’s new vehicle of choice after a short and rocky experience with the Chevy Caprice.";

The Washington State Patrol is switching back to Ford police cruisers after a brief, but rocky dalliance with Chevy. The Patrol briefed key state lawmakers Wednesday on the decision to drop the Chevy Caprice as the patrol car of choice after less than two years.

Captain Rob Huss says the Caprice is assembled in Australia and deliveries for many of the cars were delayed, sometimes by months.

“Additionally, we were finding some defects in the vehicles when we were receiving them. Thirty percent had water leakage. We were having to send those out for repair,” Huss said.

The Washington State Patrol will continue to drive the more than 300 Caprices it did purchase. But going forward, troopers will be outfitted with the police version of the Ford Explorer. The Patrol says the SUV will cost a bit more up front, but will be cheaper to maintain. Other selling points are the all-wheel-drive and larger capacity.

The Washington State Patrol originally switched to Chevy after Ford stopped production of the popular Crown Victoria in 2011.

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.