No grey areas for police as cruisers in black-and-white get badge of approval

Calgary’s black and white police cruisers are here to stay.

It’s been more than a year since police forces across the country, including the Calgary Police Service, faced criticism over fleets dubbed aggressive and militarized.

Calgary’s police force launched a review of its car colour scheme in late 2016, prompted by citizen concerns the new stark vehicles were too menacing, around the same time Toronto’s police chief halted the rollout of its grey police cruisers amid mounting criticism.

Today, Calgary’s service says it has reviewed the decision to move to black and white cruisers and concluded the colour scheme will continue to be used, “for the foreseeable future.”

“The review is done. The move to black and white was thoroughly researched — it’s used across U.S. and parts of Canada and easily recognized as the police,” said Insp. Terry Larson with the Calgary police’s traffic section.

Calgary police began making over its fleet in 2012 when the blue and white Ford Crown Victorias the service had long used were discontinued.

“It’s about getting back to our roots in a lot of ways,” then-police chief Rick Hanson told Postmedia in 2012.

Larson said when the Crown Victorias were discontinued, the service was left with two options to replace its aging fleet — a Ford Taurus Interceptor or a Dodge Charger — both of which moved away from the “smooth lines” of the police vehicles Calgarians had grown accustomed to.

In fact, Larson said he believes criticism the new vehicles looked more aggressive could come down to the vehicle shape, rather than colour.

When the force decided to go with the Ford model after exhaustive research, the colour scheme and decal plan was also well-researched, Larson said. “There was a cost saving for each vehicle based on the decalling,” he said, noting about $5,000 per car was saved.