[Steve]

Originally Posted by Wolfe1013

Steve, welcome aboard. I'm the proud owner of an '82 CHP Mustang that I picked up last summer. It's unit # was 0567. Does that ring a bell? I've been trying to find out as much about it as I can. It was retired and stayed in the Sacramento area for a while before moving to Colorado and changing hands a couple more times before I got it from a retired trooper friend. He painted it back to black & white from the yellow it had retired to. So, I'm working on a full restoration. Money's tight, so it's going to take a while.

I love your stories. Let's keep in touch. You're the first CHP officer I've encountered that drove the '82. I'll be waiting for the other photo. If you can tell us about any other details of the car, that would be great. Was there a variation in equipment for the '82s? Mine doesn't have the holes in the center of the dash by the heater and a/c controls for the bracket that held the mics and the top of the shotgun mount.

You'll find my car's thread under the 1982-1986 section.

Greg

Hi Greg,

I don't know anything about 0567. The only reason I remember 870255's number specifically is because I wrote all that info on the back of the photo.

Now about the 82 Mustangs, as I recall all of the units on patrol duty were configured the same way. They had the bracket mounted to the dash that held the shotgun, the radio and PA mics, plus a metal plate on the far left with a clip on it to hold a small notepad (about 4"x5"). That note pad was very handy for writing something down while driving. This was the same setup as used in the other patrol vehicles in CHP use at the time, the Dodge Diplomat. It is possible that some of the Mustangs were used for other activites, perhaps in Sacramento HQ or a Division HQ and did not have the shotgun mount and this bracket. That could explain the absence of dash mounting holes.

Patrol Mustangs were all slicktops (no lights or light bars mounted on the roof), and they had a red spotlight on the driver's side, with the white spotlight on the passenger's side. The red spotlight was controlled by the switch on it's control/aiming arm. The white spotlight had a switch on its control arm, and it also could be turned on by a remote rocker switch mounted on the emergency equipment control head. This was useful because it was not practical to operate the white spotlight from the driver's side. So I would leave the spotlight switch on and just use the remote. During hours of darkness I would tilt the white spotlight up and forward and position it aimed at the height of a vehicle rear window, at about the typical distance between cars on a stop. The spotlight would be left in that position. Then when making a car stop, As I pulled in behind the other vehicle I would reach down and hit the remote switch, turning on the light. Using the spot of light as a guide, I would simply position the Mustang so the light was shining where I wanted it and stopped in that position. Never had to touch the spotlight control arm itself.

On the rear deck, the driver's side as I recall, were two rear facing floodlights, one red and one amber. The red light burned steadily when on, the amber flashed. These were controlled by rocker switches on the same panel as the white spotlight remote. The amber warning light, the "porch light" as we used to call it, was used mostly while driving at high speed or other emergency situations to let other drivers know you were doing something official, really a courtesy light. It was also originally intended in all patrol cars to be used as a warning light when you were stopped on the road but after a number of tragedies where drunk drivers crashed into stopped patrol cars on the freeway CHP did a study and figured out that something about that flashing amber light attracted drunks like moths to a flame. From then on it was recommended on a car stop not to use the flashing amber but instead shut it off and use only the car's normal emergency flashers (tail lights).That's why you would see so many CHP units on car stops on the freeway with only tail lights on or tail lights flashing. No flashing amber to the rear.

The red floodlight was supposed to function like a stop sign, meaning when you turned it on approaching traffic was supposed to stop. But nobody ever used it for that purpose because motorists didn't understand that and so it didn't work. The only time I (or anyone else I knew) ever used it when I was at an accident scene that was a hazard to approaching traffic and I had to quickly get all the lights I could facing to the rear to warn approaching traffic until I could get flares down or more units would arrive. You might have even seen a slicktop at an accident scene with the red spotlight turned to the rear; that was to get as many warning as possible facing oncoming traffic.

That was one limitation of slicktops (and so the Mustangs) in general; not much in the way of warning lights, unlike cars with the lightbars. Cars with lightbars also had both spotlights white, which was an advantage. But I wouldn't have trade the Mustang for any car with a lightbar; the Mustang was just too much fun.

870255 also had a multi-channel scanner mounted on the floor transmission hump, behind the radio and emergency equipment control head. This was something CHP did only that year, maybe as an experiment, I don't know. I don't know if this was just for rural areas, or all of them had it. I programmed it to monitor various frequencies, including the CB Truckers channel. And man, was that an eye opener! It didn't matter where I was, any time I got within binocular's distance of Interstate 5 the truckers knew it for 20 miles in all directions. Truckers exchange so much information; they know what's going on. It is a good thing, because if there is an accident ahead, they know to be cautious, slow down, and deal with it, even in the worst conditions. Or if something else is going on they can help, and they do.

I remember the time truckers helped me out, catching a reckless driver on I5 who had certainly stressed out and endangered quite a few other drivers before I spotted him. It was daytime, the roadway was wet from an earlier rain, and I had just pulled into a rest stop. I observed a vehicle pass by at a very high rate of speed and by the time I got 870255 rolling and past several other vehicles trying to get onto I5 in front of me the reckless vehicle was way ahead. I accelerated to 90, but the vehicle was pulling away fast. 95, still pulling away. Then 100. At 100 it was still pulling away; this guy had to be doing at least 115, and using all both lanes to thread his way through traffic. With a wet roadway, and a light rain adding more, I was not going to exceed 100 MPH. Maybe I wouldn't catch him after all, but I did not want to pose a danger to other vehicles myself just to catch this guy. I put it out on the radio, hoping there was another CHP unit or another agency closer, but this was in the middle of nowhere. Nobody else was within 30 miles...except for the truckers. They must have been talking about this guy and when they saw me going after him, they put it out on the CB. Two big rigs ahead positioned themselves side by side, blocking both lanes. The subject vehicle was forced to slow down as it reached them, and I was on it within seconds. Stop made, reckless idiot removed from the roadway, mission accomplished. If I would have had a CB I would have broadcast a huge thank you to those truckers, but I am sure they knew it anyway.

Hope everyone doesn't mind the story; if you don't like it blame Greg...he said he liked them!