Police cars are usually utilitarian vehicles built for purpose. They’re designed to deal with the wear and tear of the job, inside and out, while typical luxuries are dispensed with. In Miami Beach, though, one department has caught plenty of attention with a Rolls-Royce wearing the local police livery.
You might imagine a frumpy British ultraluxe saloon would be a poor performer for police work. You’d be right. Instead, the vehicle is intended to aid the department’s recruitment efforts. It’s eye-catching, certainly, but new recruits should hardly expect to be patrolling the streets in such a vehicle.
The Rolls was decked out in a black-and-white wrap, while scoring a rooftop lightbar and flashers in the grille. The department’s promotional video for the car proudly features the Rolls-Royce mascot, the Spirit of Ecstasy, as well as thrumming trap beats as a soundtrack. It made quite a splash on Instagram, because police departments are on Instagram now.
Commenters were quick to react against the ostentatious show of wealth. “This is a terrible look on so many levels,” read one comment. “Explain to em how this is going to help you recruit?” asked another. Another chose to punch down on a fellow East Coast city. “You know if this was in New York City, the NYPD would get their Rolls Royce stolen,” chimed in one larrikin.
The post indicates the vehicle was donated by Miami dealership Braman Motors, with the organization covering all costs associated with the vehicle. That didn’t stop commenters from piling on, regardless.
Speaking to the Miami Herald, the department indicated the vehicle is on loan. It will eventually be returned to Braman. That makes sense, as the dealership should have no problems removing the light bars and wrap to sell the Rolls Royce at a later date. The police department will only be on the hook to cover any damage to the vehicle that occurs during its loan period. The city has drafted an insurance certificate to cover the Rolls Royce while the department is using it as a recruitment tool.
In the West, auspicious displays of wealth are often tolerated when they’re the result of an individual’s own success. That remains true, even if that success is built off the back of those they exploited. Jeff Bezos’s rocket trip to nowhere is a great example. But when it comes to public servants, people tend to take a dim view. They’re expected to do their jobs for a fair wage, if that, with no extraneous waste on perks or luxuries.
Even if the Miami Beach Police Department didn’t pay for the Rolls Royce, it’s still a bad look to many. Seeing police cruising around in a car worth more than many people’s homes is a difficult pill to swallow. It’s even worse at a time when cost of living pressures are pushing many families against the wall.
As far as PR blunders go, this one is up there with Dukakis in the tank. If you’re working for the city council, and some dealership wants to give you a Lamborghini Aventador to use as a street sweeper, just say no and avoid the whole mess before it begins.
[Ed note: I feel like Lewin has just discovered this Dukakis-in-the-Tank thing and is now obsessed with it. It’s kinda funny. I don’t have the heart to tell him about Willie Horton or Lee Atwater. – MH]
Or, just follow this simple rule. If they’re doing it in Florida, you should do the opposite. You’re welcome.
Image credits: Miami Beach Police Department via Instagram
I like to imagine in a few years when this is sold at auction, similar to old american police cars, some redneck is going to buy it up and be bragging to his friends “Yeah, it’s got the constable motor”
“Constable shocks, constable tires…”
I think it’s a great message that law enforcement is there to tend to the misdeeds of rich people too. Police cars shouldn’t all just be so middle-class. They could do up a total beater courtesy Jim-Bob’s Buy Here/Pay Here, and what…be hated for cultural appropriation of those in poverty?
If no public funds are at stake then all I can say is “have fun!”. If we all went through life worried about what other people might incorrectly perceive no one would ever be able to do anything.
Sadly it was not a Ferrari Daytona Spyder, or even a replica built on a C3 chassis.
Now I will quietly hum Crockett’s Theme in my head for a bit.
Miami Beach might be the one of the few places where driving a Rolls-Royce might be considered Community Policing. Still, who are you trying to recruit with this? You fundamentally asking people to become a public servant at the expense of traditional employment comforts. Having a Rolls-Royce that you get to cruise around in after five years employment ain’t bringing the people who should first and foremost should want to better a community. I’ve worked with Cops for years. Everywhere from rural counties to Boston. A good cop and bad cop is primarily a reflection of culture of the department. These publicity stunts attract people looking to do “cool stuff”. What they consider cool tends to run afoul of law. You’re just inviting IA investigations and lawsuits that’s burning the bridge of the community, and thusly your burning out your staff by inviting people who aren’t interested in the critical mission.
I wonder what is considered “damage”.
Braman: “Hey, that smells like regular. She needs premium, dude! PREMIUM! DUDE!”
Most municipal-owned public works fuel pumps (where police cars and snow plows fill up) only have regular (87) and diesel.
I’ve seen departments repurpose seized vehicles as a “f*** around and find out” message to those rolling in drug money, which still isn’t a great look IMO, but this is a new one for the US.
That said, anyone mad about this should be furious when cops are rolling in an MRAP as well…..
Should have made Lil’ Bandit a police car rather than sell it to Homer
Making me have to google ‘larrikin’ like some kinda bogan.
Lol. Yeah, it’s a recruitment device. Recruiting who? People who think they get to drive a rolls royce as a cop? They should take the rolls royce initial cost and maintenance costs and use it to pay a higher salary to attract better people rather than trying to….recruit people who think a rolls royce cop car is cool.
Should have just 3D printed some plastic badges with the police department’s logo to stick over the “RR” emblems, nobody would have been the wiser.
Also, I feel like this is such a stereotypical South Florida thing. I worked for a non-profit organization for several years after college, and the local council in Palm Beach was notorious for issuing Range Rovers as company cars to all their field staff, underwritten by a board member.
The executive director was the only employee in my office with a company cad, and he just had a Mercury
All the cop hating?????? I didn’t think you all were dropping to JALOPNIK levels….. Your writers can do much better then this
If policing is illogical, car guys will call it out. We’re not blind believers of a creed. This isn’t cop hating. This is hating a waste of money that as done by the cops. Think Mcfly, think.
Except that it wasn’t paid for by cops, it is on loan and fully sponsored by the car dealership.
So it’s even worse. It’s bribery.
Imagine thinking that this is even remotely close to bribery. How smooth is your brain?
Sounds like you enjoy bribing people.
Yes, wealthy people would never make a 6 figure donation without any expectation of reciprocity in the future. /s
Anything that isn’t licking cops asses = cop hating right?
Oh please. They’re simply reporting on what people on Twitter have said. Lewin did a good job not injecting his own views into it. Or do you think that not mindlessly praising cops for everything they do is automatically hating?
Please point to the place on the doll where the “cop hating” happened.
“Maybe a Rolls-Royce is a bad look for public servants.”
COP HATING HATERS!!!!!
????
Awww I can’t do emojis.
Oink.
It’s south Florida, corruption comes with the swamp. Hell, Florida had a “take your squad home” program for cops, and a bunch of cops from the Miami area used said squads for a daily 200 mile commute to the cheaper housing on the west coast. The law was amended to limit the cop commutes to the county they work in, so now there’s always a bunch of cruisers parked at a convenient rest area on the county line on Alligator Alley!
How is your story a bad thing? The intention is to get cops to bring cruisers into local neighborhoods to enhance visibility.
A long commute to cheaper housing was a logical result of not paying the cops enough to live local, but the loophole was closed by changing the law.
And now the cops in question are doing the best they can with the situation because you can’t just sell a home and move into another on a whim. Real estate markets in both areas, kids in school, spouse probably has a job, too, etc.
The solution is to change the law again. Maybe that an officer who takes a squad car off-duty can’t regularly go more than 10 miles away from it. Then they can’t take their squad cars halfway home and leave them in the middle of nowhere.
Taking squad cars home is, in most cases, great public policy. Like any other policies, there will always be people taking advantage of things the best they can, and it’s appropriate to react and adjust.
In many large cities cops are some of the best paid public servants with the greatest degree of workplace protection. Simultaneously, when an officer lives far outside the community they police, it doesn’t exactly help them act as part of said community. It’s a huge problem where I live.
I don’t know if it’s exactly good public policy to subsidize commutes on the public dollar, particularly if that’s not uniformly granted to other public servants.
I also don’t know how much “increased visibility” really helps – and if we’re talking commutes out of their precinct, that’s not the really local neighborhoods now, is it?
Locally, they tried to enforce a “live in your jurisdiction” rule, but it was deemed unconstitutional.
So basing the limits on where you can take the squad car and how near you need to be to it when you do take it seems to be the next logical way to get the desired results.
Paying for a squad car to drive a few extra miles is like getting almost free additional police presence. They’re visible from the moment the officer leaves their doorstep, and until the moment they return to it. Even though they’re not on the clock yet, to the public, it looks like they are. And if they see anything along the commute, they can radio the dispatch officer to start or extend their shift to deal with it. It’s like little bit of on-call service, paid for with use of the vehicle.
Like I said, it’s great public policy, but needs carefully structured rules to ensure that the actual results are what the policymakers are trying to promote.
Not to ask you to reveal your location, but what jurisdiction was that ruling? I’d be interested to read on it.
The 200 miles OP mentioned isn’t “a few extra miles,” and honestly what you described with off-duty work would abut a NLRA violation. At the very least it would result in more reported OT; another common issue with PD’s. You ever want a shock look up your municipality’s OT payouts.
As well, I think you overvalue the idea of the presence of visible police cars. There’s been a few studies showing that while foot patrols increase perception of safety (note, perception rather than reality), vehicle patrols tend to reduce it.
I’m genuinely not sure what makes it great policy besides being a blanket empowerment of the police, contradictory in some points and divorced from other policy and evidence.
Jurisdictions were originally Miami and suburbs and some cops commuting in the squads 100 miles each way to the Naples area where housing was cheaper. Now I understand housing is more expensive in Naples so it’s Collier County cops commuting to east coast cities like Miami and suburbs.
TY for context
Many LEO units allow an officer to start (or extend) their shift during their commutes for bona fide needs with approval from the Dispatch Officer, who no doubt, gets approval from the Officer In Charge. That’s already the case.
As long as they’re in radio range, an officer is never really 100% off duty. I don’t know if this is how it works in most districts, but it’s definitely the default around here. And it’s not a violation because the moment they respond, they’re already being paid.
Picking up an emergency call while commuting in a LEO vehicle rather than in one’s private vehicle has the huge advantage of providing all the normal tools needed be effective. Visibility is definitely not the only advantage.
I’m already very familiar with the overtime problems, which are almost exclusively caused by resistance to any increase in head counts.
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court ruled that public employees have a constitutional right to privacy in their home address. Other states have also ruled against requirements for a home address within a specific jurisdiction based on the right to pursue happiness through employment of choice, and on other grounds. To my knowledge, the only “employs locals only” rules that still stand are based on representation: i.e. elected officials must live in the district they’re elected to represent.
You are clearly familiar with the internal workings of that system. I can’t really argue with you on those fine details, but what you’re describing sounds rather hellish. Talk about work-life balance.
Resistance to increasing headcount is rather obviously not the near exclusive factor in OT issues. I’m also curious if you mean internal or external resistance.
I mean, look at what you described as standard practice. Ambiguous lines of being on/off duty, an ability to clock hours at a moments notice, carrying your work with you to do so – that’s all a recipe for OT.
And that’s without getting into other factors, or for that matter corruption. That alone is it’s own significant issue; the police in my town were caught selling OT to each other as boldly as through Venmo.
And again, visibility isn’t really an advantage.
Around here, municipalities are not allowed to require residence in them. So any claim that it’s beneficial having police officers living in your community is BS, because they all get incomes that let them move to the suburbs.
As I said, no place I know has valid “employs only locals” rules anymore other than elected representatives. But you CAN limit where employees are permitted to take the vehicles, and therefore if they live within your jurisdiction, that allows the officers to drive them to and from work every day. So there are valid, acceptable incentives to live local, but no requirement.
It’s a different route to the same goal.
What’s next, pastel sports coats and espadrilles? Crockett and Tubbs would be so proud.
“Ed note: I feel like Lewin has just discovered this Dukakis-in-the-Tank thing and is now obsessed with it. It’s kinda funny.”
Ha. Yeah, wait until Lewin finds out about Bush in the codpiece flightsuit or Trump at the wheel of a 18-wheeler or even Teddy Roosevelt in a white suit sitting in a steam shovel
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Roosevelt_and_the_Canal.JPG
(To be sure, that image is actually kind of cool but, come on, really? A white suit while sitting in a coal-fired steam shovel? Yeah, the optics are pretty dang imperialistic…)
Dirt knew what would happen if it messed up Teddy’s suit.
The entire Panama Canal was actually a response to mud sticking to his boot during a charge with the Rough Riders that caused his foot to slip slightly in his stirrup. It learned its lesson.
I mean, in Teddy’s day, that was a good thing. “Yo we’ve manifested all this destiny up in here, so let’s take a page from Papa Britain and try to make sure the sun never sets on the stars and stripes!”
Teddy Roosevelt probably knew how to operate a steam shovel, and was just sitting there thinking about more manly days… when he and the rough riders would have dug the canal by hand.
As for not being bought with taxpayer money, I suspect whoever gave them this got a proportional tax write-off, so while taxpayer money wasn’t spent per se, there’s still a Rolls-Royce-shaped hole in the public fund, which isn’t much better.
I don’t think the Rolls-Royce even registers in the public fund deficit.
Still, the end result is the same between spending the money and just not collecting it, so it DOES cost the taxpayer, regardless if it’s in taxes paid or services not received. And it’s a pretty corrupt move to give some car dealership a tax write-off on a “donation” that doesn’t help anyone with anything.
But the argument is that it does help with recruiting and it doesn’t state anywhere that the PD asked for this. How much does it help with recruiting, who knows, but I can say I remember all of the old DARE cars the local PD used to have on display at local car shows or events when I was a kid. When other jurisdictions take a seized car and add police liveries those are used for the same kind of marketing. That includes making a showpiece as an ice breaker so that members of the public can feel more comfortable talking to law enforcement, allows police to mix in with others where most folks would probably not want to willingly interact with the police, shows that crime doesn’t pay, etc. There are so many positive PR moves this can help with, I see no issue with it. The crowds this will attract will almost all be folks who would never try to interact with police. If this helps humanize people and interaction with law enforcement, great!
Admittedly tone-deaf optics aside, I don’t understand how this is supposed to be a recruiting tool. So they got a super expensive car to grab some quick double takes, but that doesn’t translate into anything more than the officer that would have otherwise been doing DARE getting to ride around in Rolls a few times a week.
Of course, it’s a win for the dealership. Sales of hyper-luxury vehicles are down, so they get to write off the depreciation on stagnant inventory as a donation.
First, check your sources. 2023 was R-R’s best sales year in the modern history of the company. There is no stagnant inventory.
Second, this is Miami Beach, a place renowned for vapid, attention seeking douches. There’s a non-zero chance they will think this is a normal squad car they’ll get to use if they join the force.
According to Statista Rolls sales were flat between 2022 and 2023. No word, yet on how 2024 is shaping up, but indicators from other ultra-premium automakers suggest the market is shrinking.
Fair point. Some PDs do deliberately put a limit on how smart their applicants can be. The number of people I know who said “[insert more strenuous field] didn’t work out, might as well become a cop,” is nontrivial.
If they only hire morons, they might think a RR would be their squad. But I’ve got to think that even Miami Beach requires a higher IQ than that.
Maybe not. Or maybe the signal is “be corrupt enough and you too can have a RR”.
Honestly, I think a Mustang or similar would have been a much more effective, and relatable, recruiting tool. Or a classic car done up in old school Miami PD colors.
Actually, ‘effective” is questionable, is anyone going to be persuaded into a job by a fancy car that they’re not likely to ever get to drive? People want good pay and benefits. I recently found out that my company has a damn top fuel dragster in Australia. That’s cool, but also, who cares? Nobody is working here because of that.
For police, I would think some sort of community outreach programs that help improve police image would be a better recruiting tool.
Some kind of muscle car or vintage police cruiser makes way more sense, imo. I see that from time to time and it’s 1) less ostentatious and 2) speaks more directly to the kind of person they’d be recruiting.
Community outreach would do a lot more than any car or mascot to improve recruitment, improve working relations with the community, and generally make things better for everyone. But that’s contrary to the mindset and goals adopted by many PDs in this country. I’d go on, but I don’t want certain elements of the commentariat to screech at me for being anti-cop or something like that…
Unfortunately, in some communities, a police “outreach program” revolves around clubbing people. A fancy car isn’t going to recruit the people they should be recruiting.
I saw a video on IG last night where a cop started clubbing a protester and the GSD he was holding jumped up and clamped down on his clubbing arm. Good boy!!
Good grief. Chances are very good that even if the Miami police department had just bought the RR outright it’d still be cheaper than just the cost of operating and maintaining all those tanks, MRAPs, and the like that so many increasingly militarized U.S. police departments have nowadays (which is inherently problematic in that it’s all too often a case of having a hammer so every problem looks like a nail in need of pounding, that is, when one has a tank every problem looks like a “riot” in need of quashing.)
PD near me got a “free” HUMVEE from the military, cost them $20K to outfit the thing and they still haven’t had to buy tires. It’s so useless it only comes out for parades and blizzards…
For some reason the city cops near me (pop. around 100k) have an MRAP. So do the town cops (pop. 7k). Neither place has an issue with terrorism or riots. As far as I can tell they use them as roadblocks during public events. That’s it, ever. 2x4s and paint from the local hardware store would be just as effective .
I pass the local PD’s training facility every day on my way to work. Our town of 110k feels the need for 2 MRAPs, an F-350 based armored SWAT van, a 40 foot Mobile Command Unit trailer, and a half dozen lifted camo’ed pickups. That’s in addition to all the assets the County Sheriff and State Police bring to bear.
LESO 1033 and LESO 1122 made it stupidly cheap for PDs to get literal military equipment. Decades of “War on ___” policies and warrior cop mentality really messed with priorities.
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2709692232405255
Perfect for staking out the Georgia state line looking for women on their way to Virginia or Illinois.
What an idiotic reaction. This is not the first time a police force has used an expensive car… Rolls, Lambo, Ferrari, Corvette, whatever… dressed up as a cop car for publicity purposes. And it won’t be the last. They do this stuff all the time. No harm no foul. Much ado about nothing. Making a mountain out of a molehill. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Each of those other examples you cite are equally idiotic as the rolls. This isn’t the first time, sure – but that doesn’t mean it needs to keep on happening.
Perception matters – even if it’s donated or on a free loan to the MPD, nuance is lost on the average mouth breather.
Also, who are they trying to attract with this vehicle? That’s the strangest part to me. I would think you’re getting a different kind of applicant if you’re promoting things like a pension, early retirement, etc vs SHINEY SHINEY CAR.
A lot of the things that are done in the name of recruitment are silly. At least when the National Guard or whoever hauls out the portable rock climbing wall, it makes sense as something to engage potential recruits with a challenge. A flashy car as a promo tool for PDs is so passive and arguably divisive. I’d say they need to come up with some kind of game to simulate police duty, but that’s gonna be either super boring or kinda violent.
Especially when LEO never even makes the list of “10 most deadly occupations”. Farmers, truck drivers, construction workers, roofers, yeah. Cops, never.
I guess the point is why now? Why was this ok every other time it’s been done, and even looked upon as pretty cool, but now all of a sudden a few internet Karens get their panties in a bunch and all of a sudden it’s newsworthy? It’s a silly thing to complain about.
Okay, I get what you’re saying, but how does it help with recruiting? Also, ss has been pointed out in later comments, if the business donating it gets a tax break, that’s a cost to the public, as was outfitting it with the lights and wrap, so arguably there is harm, however minor. To me it just seems like a stupid thing that has no reasonable purpose. That said, I’m not wasting my energy being upset about it.
It attracts attention. Nothing more. Imagine the cops have a booth set up at a job fair with this thing sitting next to it. People come to look at it, go “ooooo”, and some recruiting officer strikes up a conversation that eventually leads to a new hire. It’s nothing more than that.
At our trade show booth, we have a robot that serves beer. We’re not trying to sell that system, nor are we selling beer. But it brings shitloads of people into the booth that might otherwise walk right past.
Okay, sure drawing in people at an event is plausible, but I bet free beer served by a robot would be better.
Not gonna argue with that. RoboBar is available to rent for parties and police recruitment events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZijmIpr5SGo
Wow, no civil forfeiture? It doesn’t matter if no taxes went for this. Perception matters.
One lesson of adulthood is that perception is more important than reality. Like the USPS covering the Metris Mercedes logos with eagle logos just in case.
What I’ve been wondering about the Metris, after seeing one this weekend – why is there no star badge on the rear, but rather a kinda awkward “Mercedes-Benz” instead?
I assumed this had been confiscated from a drug dealer and pressed into service, as the flashy police vehicles often are.
The real story makes it pretty lame, although I don’t think it’s worth getting upset over. No ones’ taxes went to pay for it after all.
“the organization covering all costs associated with the vehicle”
Does that include the insurance policy?
Well they say “has drafted an insurance certificate”, which seems to imply they self-insure. So the cost would be minimal in a large self-insurance pool.
And so if some member of the Braman family gets pulled over for a DUI, will they bring this around to haul them off to the lockup?
I kid, I kid. The cops will use it to give them a ride home.
At least it’s not a tank or a MRAP.
They probably already have those.
Nah.All the MRAPs they got are already in heavy rotation going after
overdue parking tickets, school libraries, and low level drug possessionserious threats to public safety.