When and where did the “Black and White” Police car originate?

Question

The oldest reference I can find is for the mid-1930’s in New York City. Were the NYPD cars the first?

Answer 1

Richard,
Finding an original date and city of origin (when & where) is proving to be tough (at least for me). So far I have only been able to determine the "why", but I'll keep digging.

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Police and fire fighter myths
By Lance Bailey | Sunday, January 28, 2007, 07:30 AM

"Sgt. Shaun Pendleton, public information officer for the Longview Police Department, responded to the question about black and white squad cars:

There really isn’t much out there on this. The basic consensus is that way back when Henry Ford told people buying cars that they had their choice of colors: black, black, and black! Also the wide range of colors didn’t become available for many years and you basically got your car in either black or white, so to make the police cars look different from any other car, they made them black and white instead of just one color."

http://www.news-journal.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/lnj/entries/2007/01/28/police_and_fire_fighter_myths.html#comments

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"The reason that police vehicles were painted black and white was to make them stand out from all of the other vehicles using the highway of which most were black ..."

http://www.californiapolicechiefs.org/nav_files/research/pdfs_misc/blk_white.pdf

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
When and where did the “Black and White” Police car originate?
The oldest reference I can find is for the mid-1930’s in New York City. Were the NYPD cars the first?

Answer 3

Yes NYPD had them first but the popularity comes from LAPD in the 1950s. Many tree huggers in America believe that the black and white paint scheme is intimidating and that police officers should not be like that (though it works).

Answer 4

I would have to say Kevin makes the most sense. As for black and white being "intimidating", sounds like a pointless arguementative opinion. The only cars I find intimidating are the ones that look like they don't care what they hit. Good luck on your search!

Answer 5

They are called panda cars here in the UK. Pre 1960 they were all black, and called black mariahs!

Answer 6

It started, I think back in the 1950's or earlier with the bigger departments like the NYPD, or the LAPD.

Answer 7

Just like you around the 1930s.

Answer 8

http://www.dodgepolicecars.com/story5.htm

Start here and see if he has anything you are looking for.