Did the Mass. State Police drive 1974 Dodges?

PeugFra

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I've been looking around, especially on the State Trooper Plate site, but I can't find a confirmation for 1974 Dodge with the MSP.

The reason why I'm asking is the Greenlight model.
 
This appears to be a period correct photo of a MASP Dodge Royal Monaco in 1977/78

1977.Dodge.Royal.Manaco.MASP.jpg


I think in 1974 they were driving all Fords for that year and switched to the Dodges & Plymouth's in late 1976 for the 1977's.
Most of the 1977's were auctioned off in the early 80's as they had a very controversial policy of each trooper got their own 'take home' car.
The state bean counters wanted to have the cars running 24/7 like city departments to save costs but that was countered with if the troopers had their own personal car they would take better care of it (not trash the interior like city cars) plus all their personal gear to R & R. The other counter was that the cars would be worth more at auction due to lower mileage (didn't happen). These big block were not wanted by the cab companies like the later small block Crown Vic's. I don't know if the bean counters won out on the deal.

A couple side notes from that period:
I talked to a Trooper in the late 70's and he said his Plymouth was way faster than the Fords of previous years.

I use to live in a house that was around the corner from a Registry Of Motor Vehicles Officer's home, (think DMV later to be merged with SP). His house and garage were in direct eyesight of exiting our driveway and I think in all the 3+ years I lived there we never saw that car leave the garage. I saw the garage open and spyed the front end just once in all that time. Think he had a desk job at one of the Registry Office's and went to work in his civvy's and civilian car. But he still had a patrol car and I'm sure the jackboot inspired MSP uniform. He was a cool guy, he'd come over to play cards with my roommates, I met him one night, never needed to use his <ahem> 'side services' but my roommate let me know he was a guy to go too. Didn't need to go there when I had title problems with the boneyard on my first 1977 PK41 exStatie car. The way the boneyard reacted so quick after I called and filed a complaint with the RMV it may have been the office he was at.


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Not sure what they drove in 74. I bought this "used car ($375!!) back in 1980. I seriously regret selling it, what a car!!
IMG_20211003_195144.jpg
 
I will back you up on this as I was a Massachusetts young "enthusiastic" driver of that era... :rolleyes:
HA HA ditto on that, but to tell you the truth I wasn't really treated too bad by them over my younger years even when some trooper chased me down on my Sportster and exited his vehicle with his round smokey the bear hat on with both arms straight up in the air yelling "What are you some kind of a-hole? Do you know how fast I had to go to catch up with you?" Now I was 6'02" at the time and this guy was a good 4 or 5 inches taller than me heh, got out of that one with when he ask me if I knew how fast I was going with "Nah, this full coverage helmet the the state requires me to wear blocks my view of the speedometer", plus sorry I was over at a friends house watching him swap a motor in his Camaro and lost track of the time and I gotta get home and cleaned up and pickup the girlfriend for dinner with my parents, yada yada yada.
Long wait at the side of the road for all the teletype to come back, he cut me loose with nothing but the initial yelling. Later on I run into a good buddy that was a local town cop and I asked him if he was on the desk last Saturday as I knew he was on desk duty for getting T-boned in the cruiser that aggravated one of his many duty related injuries leading to his full medical pension.... He said, No why, what did you do now? Back then in the slow (or always down) teletype days if the trooper was digging and teletype was down he'd have the barracks call the local registrants PD for any dirt.

:rofl:

Well in this search for the latest vintage MASP cars I found this one and appears that they went back to some Fords in 1978.

1978 Ford Crown Vic MASP Troop E (Turnpike).jpg


I take it all back as another good friend of mine's brother in-law was a Troop E (Turnpike) Trooper. Now he was a DICK!

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Back then it was standard operating practice the the Massachusetts State Police car fleet purchases that they rotated through, GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
If GM was one year, Ford was next, followed by Chrysler. Repeat.
 
Back then it was standard operating practice the the Massachusetts State Police car fleet purchases that they rotated through, GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
If GM was one year, Ford was next, followed by Chrysler. Repeat.
Yea big budget item even back then, hate to see what it's like now. I know back in the 2006 bubble on the news here they said that the state of Florida was needing to hire 600 new Troopers to keep up. Or local re-elected blabbermouth Sheriff says he has positions to fill and the force is at 3,000+ now.
 
I think in 1974 they were driving all Fords for that year and switched to the Dodges & Plymouth's in late 1976 for the 1977's.

Well in this search for the latest vintage MASP cars I found this one and appears that they went back to some Fords in 1978.

Back then it was standard operating practice the the Massachusetts State Police car fleet purchases that they rotated through, GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
If GM was one year, Ford was next, followed by Chrysler. Repeat.

So:
1974 - Ford
1975 -
1976 -
1977 - Chrysler
1978 - Ford

Did AMC also take part in this merry-go-round? I have to fill two slots between 1974 and 1977.
 
Last edited:
So:
1974 - Ford
1975 -
1976 -
1977 - Chrysler
1978 - Ford

Did AMC also take part in this merry-go-round? I have to fill two gaps between 1974 and 1977.
In all my days I've only ever seen some states and cities but mainly Los Angeles California use the Matador for cruisers and Alabama use the Javelin(?) for a highway pursuit vehicle.
I've never known Massachusetts to use AMC cars if that is your specific question.
I knew someone that was a Alabama State Trooper that in the early 60's said his Chevy patrol car had the Dual Quad 409 engine in it with a three speed on the tree. Said he and his fellow troopers would haul moonshine across the state from Georgia to Mississippi...

:wideyed:
 
I mean that GM - Ford - Chrysler rotation scheme somehow doesn't show up going by the MASP cars observed in the 1974-1978 period.
 
I mean that GM - Ford - Chrysler rotation scheme somehow doesn't show up going by the MASP cars observed in the 1974-1978 period.
Well in all my times of searching for vintage police car pictures I've seen very little of older (pre 1990) MASP pictures, mostly on the historical PD car sites.
You got to remember these fleet builds were a big part of the car companies business, and also for the penny pinching state bean counters. States with large populations the fleets would not all get replaced at one time due too state budgets. So they would rotate high mileage and damage cars out and with the number that they needed put it out to bid and whoever came up with the lowest number that is the make they got. Then there were some states that had minimum requirements and specs (like CHP), but for most states it was all about the budget $$$$$$.


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