Police magazine picks "best dressed" patrol cars

It all depends on your point of view. Business magazines judge rich people and the best employers. Fashion magazines judge designers and models. Well, police magazines pick the best-looking police cars.

The current issue of Blue Line Magazine says that the retro paint jobs of the cruisers of the Ontario Provincial Police (above) wins it Canada's "best dressed" title.

Blue Line, which has a circulation of about 50,000 and goes to law enforcement agencies across the country, collaborated with a police car website PoliceCanada.ca to pick the winners. Among them was the fleet of the University of Saskatchewan campus safety patrol "We know it's the nicest design in Canada, but we didn't know somebody else was going to agree with us," says Bob Ferguson, director of campus safety at the U of S, who was surprised by the win in a contest the department never knowingly entered.

Law enforcement agencies, along with enthusiasts, post pictures of law enforcement vehicles on PoliceCanada.ca, says Dave Brown, a freelance writer for Blue Line magazine, and the man who chose the country's "best dressed police vehicles" for Blue Line's January 2008 issue.

According to a story in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Brown says he was looking for "immediately identifiable" police and law enforcement vehicles with good visibility, a unique look, a clean design and a connection to the community.

Some police forces, law enforcement vehicles and campus patrols are better at dressing up their cars than others.

"Some of them really look like mobile ransom notes," Brown said. "They have such a mix of fonts and colours."

Sound like a few magazines of your acquaintance?