Cars without cages
Posted for a friend of mine who's retired from the road and now does a transportation detail with a county SO:
He sees a lot of cars - even ones used for patrol - without cages. Anyone have a clue why this would be done, considering the terrible officer safety ramifications?
He sees a lot of cars - even ones used for patrol - without cages. Anyone have a clue why this would be done, considering the terrible officer safety ramifications?
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CHP had a lot of units withiut cages. They said it was so that if they deployed on mutual aid situations - fire evacuations, protests, and such - they could run four deep en route to the county needing assistance. Considering how rarely that happened, and that they pretty much didn’t run code on those, there are plenty of big white vans.
Patrol cars without cages is ludicrous, and negligent.
Patrol cars without cages is ludicrous, and negligent.
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And yet I've met guys who defend not having cage, they put suspects in the front seat.
I always tell them that I'm pretty sure we haven't been aresting the same people, alot of the people I've hooked up over the years were either so violent or so disgusting that I would have tied them to the hood before I put them in the front....
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Nothing like trying to get blood and poo out of the upholstery.
Working patrol rigs need a cage and hard plastic seats, IMHO. Admin vehicles not so much.
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I never saw why admin needed Criwn Vics. Except for one chief deputy, we never had anyone above the rank of sergeant who made any arrests. Admins could drive a Civic or Corolla - they really don’t even need a four-door.
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We issued them to admin for three main reasons: standardization, we got a good price on the state contract, and because our mechanics liked them. Later we did the same thing with Explorers. Worked OK for us, but we were a much smaller agency than I believe you are. Our admin (Lt. and up) would definitely help patrol but basically never transported.
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All our patrol cars have full cages. Supervisor cars do not. K9 and detectives cars aren’t setup for transport either.
According to directives a two man unit can transport without a cage but I never allowed that to happen. I always called for a caged unit for any transport.
Why risk an issue.
According to directives a two man unit can transport without a cage but I never allowed that to happen. I always called for a caged unit for any transport.
Why risk an issue.
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Most of the people I heard defending not having a cage were some variety of trooper, which probably explains it....
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Exactly.
I've seen small agencies where a new squad was used as an unmarked adim/super car, then given to patrol use where a cage was installed and marked.
Other than that, no.
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We have lots of uncaged cars. That‘s because we often ride four deep when responding to Mobile Field Forces, and no one wants to ride in the back seat in a caged car. We also have a procedure for prisoner transportation in a car without a cage. The partner officer rides in back with the prisoner.
While by and large, most of our cars do have cages now, our circumstances are rather unique. Our standard patrol unit is always two officers per car, and we often ride four deep.
While by and large, most of our cars do have cages now, our circumstances are rather unique. Our standard patrol unit is always two officers per car, and we often ride four deep.
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I hated the cage cars. I’m tall. It would keep us tall people from adjusting our seats properly. Then add when we used the cars to transport other officers in the back like foot posts of a four man car. Then if the footpost made and arrest, they rode in the back with the perp . And with cage, it’s very tight back there. Talker perps had a hard time fitting in.
The nice thing about a cage car was just being able to throw the perp in the back and then we could concentrate on working the other stuff going on at a scene .
The nice thing about a cage car was just being able to throw the perp in the back and then we could concentrate on working the other stuff going on at a scene .
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This…. With full off duty use here a cage would displace Junior from his car seat.
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There's always the trunk!
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Think lots of places are working on budget of next to nothing.
CHP use to auction off decommissioned Cars, msny were bought by small police agencies to reuse.
Back in the late 90’s, CHP retired Cars at 60 miles.
Cages cost money, some place have no money to spend on much.
CHP use to auction off decommissioned Cars, msny were bought by small police agencies to reuse.
Back in the late 90’s, CHP retired Cars at 60 miles.
Cages cost money, some place have no money to spend on much.
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About half of our patrol units don't have cages. Budget reasons. Of course about half of our patrol guys never arrest anyone because they are lazy. The proactive guys have cages.
When I was a rookie, the chief deputy told me to get into his truck. No cage. We went to pick up a crazy guy who had threatened a federal judge. The chief deputy put the crazy guy in the back seat. I was instructed to sit in the back seat with the crazy guy and to keep my .45 pointed at the crazy guy's head until we get to the jail. No problems during transport.
When I was a rookie, the chief deputy told me to get into his truck. No cage. We went to pick up a crazy guy who had threatened a federal judge. The chief deputy put the crazy guy in the back seat. I was instructed to sit in the back seat with the crazy guy and to keep my .45 pointed at the crazy guy's head until we get to the jail. No problems during transport.
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