A recent post by JIM asking about aircraft survival kits reminded me of this for some reason:

Many years ago (circa 1970) my mother dragged me to a Home and Garden show at McCormick Place in Chicago (was NOT my idea, dad flat out refused and sis made herself scarce). Anyway, the Illinois State Police had a display there and part of it was a cruiser with a plexiglass trunk lid to show off all the stuff they carry. I was really impressed, this sucker was packed: box o' flares, stretcher, gonzo first aid kit, food, water, tools, etc., etc. The apparent reasoning was: "Well, we're always first on the scene when things go bad, might as well be prepared even if we don't how to use some of this stuff. Hopefully there'll be someone around that will."

Now I'm pretty sure that's no longer the case (and I kinda' doubt it ever was), the question is: What is typical trunk carry in cruisers these days (state, county, local, whatever)?

One of my good friends who is a detective keeps his hockey gear in his unmarked ;-)

My dad told me that when he was a Texas Highway Patroman for a while in his youth, he had his fishin' gear in the trunk! (As long as my dad was alive, no one in the family ever had to buy fish at the store...I surely do miss him!)

It kindsorta depends on the agency, the location, and the vehicle. When I was a highway cop working the L.A. freeways, in addition to our personal stuff, hats and helmets, we always had at least three boxes of 30 minute flares, tops cut off, and all of the end caps already swapped around, so that we could flare off three lanes of a frwy as fast as possible. Didn't need much in the way of first aid supplies, the fire dept and ambulance usually beat us there anyway. Spare tire, 4-way lug wrench, jumper cables, and the main part of the company radio stuck back there. Fire extinguisher.

When I transferred out to the boonies, we had not quite as many flares (I-5 only has two lanes in each direction there, but you might have to keep a flare pattern going much longer), I became an EMT and had a pretty well stocked (and bulky) kit, a shovel, wire and staples (my idea) for patching holes in a fence to keep the critters in, and half a dozen traffic cones. One gallon cowboy canteen. Radios got bigger, more parts in the trunk. Newer bigger fire extinguisher.

Then we got Ford Mustangs, which had a much smaller trunk. No cones, fewer flares, GI E-tool (mine) instead of a full sized shovel, EMT kit now in the back seat. Then we got Chevy Cameros. Look and sound really cool, accelerate like being launched off the nose of a carrier, NO trunk at all. Blow-up spare, one case of flares if you were lucky, jumpers, 4-way, EMT kit, your gear, fire extinguisher, and of course those radios, all crammed behind the back seat, on the back seat, on the back floorboards (what little space was there).

In addiiton to all this, I had a sample case kind of thing with clipboards, extra forms, spare loaded mags in GI mag pouches, spare shotgun ammo, when we got rifles spare 30 round 5.56 mags in GI pouches, half a dozen pair of spare cuff, flexcuffs, 100 ft tape, the list goes on and on...

My best friend was the sniper on the sheriff's SWAT team, he carried flares (we gave 'em to him), shovel, jumpers, fire extinguisher, a parachute bag with all his SWAT gear in it, two hard cases with his sniper rifle in one, and a Colt H-BAR in the other, plus little goodies to make his life as a sniper more comfortable (Thermarest pad, food, water, blackwidow spider spray, I don't know what all).

As you can probably guess, it takes quite a bit of time just to carry your personal gear out and get it stored, plus check to see that all of the issue stuff is actually there...

"depends on the agency, the location, and the vehicle." That explains it best. I asked once if the officed had a wrench in his truck as the idler puller bolt I forgotten to tighten backed out and threw my fan belt off. He dug though a messy truck and couldn't find oue so I ended up tightening it every few miles with a no name multi tool.
Don't count on them having anything you might need because when you need it they probably won't have it.
Thats why we carry all our stuff. I made a small toolkit for my truck after that. I bought a "wrench roll" which is a piece of fabric with a bunch of pockets sewn into it and filled it with tools I could get on sale at sears and keep it behind the seat among the rest of my gear.

I had a little tool kit I made up and carried also, but you have to be real carefull loaning it to stranded motorists.

#1, when you get a call and have to leave, they don't understand it when you want to take your tools, bought out of your own pocket, and leave before they are done trying to do whatever it is they are doing, and

#2, California being the home of more attorneys than the rest of the world combined (give or take a few), you've gotta worry about this guy, who doesn't know enough to bring his own tools, using yours to try to fix that can't be fixed, slipping and barking his knuckles, then wanting to sue you and the department for giving him to means to hurt himself...

Well that was pretty darn nice of you...

I usually carry enough tools and other stuff to pratically do a roadside engine rebuild, but I did have to impose on an officer recently. Went for a short road trip with a buddy in his truck , and he's one of these people that figures if he has his wallett, keys, and cellphone, he's ready for anything. So he stops for gas and we both get out, and I accidently hit the electric lock button just as I closed the door. He's already out and the keys are in the ignition. No spare key, no tools.

I noticed when we were pulling in that there was a State Highway Patrol car in the parking lot of the this truck stop that had a small restaurant. I figured "Aha! Those guys carry slim jims." Walked inside and found the officer having a cup of coffee with a couple other guys. He's got his back to the wall and watches me walk towards up with this look on his face like "Oh... This is going to be interesting". Anyway, no lockout tools, but he did get the local constabulary on the phone and they were nice enough to come out and get the door open for us.

as someone said - probably depends on the car and local. I know that during the NYC balckout, when I was using my personal truck to help with the Red Cross, I came back to my truck from the ERV and found 1/2 case of 30 minute road flares sitting in the bed - I guess the PD was replacing the ones I burned...

Of course one of THESE trucks could show up

http://www.extrication.com/esutrk.jpg

Holy crap! Yeah, that'll do the job... Any job.

actually, they have replaced them with LARGER trucks - and have a BUNCH of smaller tradesman pickup type trucks. My neighbor (now retired) was an ESU cop.

You know their motto? When a person gets in trouble, they call a cop, when a cop gets in trouble, they call ESU

BTW ESU is NYC's equivilent to SWAT

BTW they have more than a smal rivalry with these guys

http://www.rescue5fdny.com/

(I think there are 5 of each - FDNY and NYPD, plus there are Corrections, and the like, plus the command trucks from OEM, as well as each departments command trucks - I'ss see if I can dig up photos from a terrorist drill a couple of years back - 500+ pieces of equipment in one place - and remember, the city still had to run..