Overhaulin'

Can Police or Highway Patrol officers legally modify and equip their own car to be used as a Police car?

For example, say I'm a highway patrol officer in the state of California and I wanted to customize my 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse into a Police car for use on the job. Is this legal?

Public Comments

1. Nope. It has to be a government issued vehicle.
2. No, the government agency itself must own, operate, and maintain all equipment in, and the vehicle, and if that officer ever transferred to another department the paperwork would be an absolute nightmare. Not to mention converting the equipment to operate in another area and district. It's also illegal for an Officer to have this equipment in another location / area / jurisdiction, and family vacations or personal out of town trips would violate that law. The other reason is because the Officer is allowed to take a company car home if he is in an on-calll situation, and they also couldn't verify gas receipts and usage for company time or personal time. The car could be sold to the Department though, if they have any interest in buying it or a purpose for it. Say a collectible model used for PR purposes (Anniversary edition pace car, etc). But it's VERY rare that they'd buy anything from 1995, especially with the newest police package engine and drivetrain requirements. Good Luck!.
3. No stupid question.......Do not, I repeat, customize your Eclipse. I had a 96 turbo and did 2 things: Cold Air intake and exhaust and the car could not stop breaking down all the time. When I revved it up over 3k the engine would break the hydrolic clutch line disabling the car......
4. The only way for that to be legal is if the agency owned the car. Then you could only drive it for business use.