Dodge Is Installing a 12.1-inch Touchscreen on Police Cars, but What's Next?

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Dodge announced for its Charger Pursuit cars Friday an available 12.1-inch Uconnect touchscreen, which is five times larger than its 5-inch model available in some of its cars.

The 12.1-inch screen — which is only available on Charger cars for police for now — is meant to eliminate mounted laptops in the front seats of many police vehicles. The screen can be connected to a laptop in the trunk via ethernet cord, and can display functions such as lights, sirens, forward-mounted cameras and radio information.

In addition to the massive Uconnect screen, Dodge sells the Charger with a V-8 and all-wheel drive only to police fleets, complete with steering column-mounted shifter.

Police fleet sales comprise a substantial part of overall sales of large sedans. Automakers don’t disclose overall costs of their police cars, however the California Highway Patrol recently paid $30,000 per Ford Taurus-based Interceptor it recently purchased, according to the LA Times.

In 2014, Dodge sold more than 10,000 of its Charger Pursuit cars according to the report.









Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Spartan Spartan on Sep 12, 2015

    The fact that they chose a 12 inch screen with 1024x768 resolution means that they found a supplier with thousands of these crap displays sitting in a warehouse and got them for a steal.

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Sep 12, 2015

    FCA is trying, but they can't address the Charger's deficiencies of inability to open the front doors 90 degrees for quick exit, the lack of hip space for officers wearing loaded utility belts, and the lack of space in the back seat with the cage installed, making it difficult to put arrestees in or take them out. Well, they can, but they'd have to redesign the car with a longer wheelbase, wider track, and taller roof, until they end up with a Chrysler 300 with a high greenhouse. The police also liked the menacing old front clip that the Italian designers softened. They might have been better off using the Durango as the base car.

    • See 1 previous
    • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Sep 13, 2015

      @nickoo On the Charger, the "Hemi" and "SRT" badges were expected to reduce chases, even though there would be a Pentastar V6 under the hood. But the old standby is reasserting its power: nobody outruns the radio. Nobody outruns the military surplus Blackhawk helicopters either.

  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
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