Victoria Police confirms BMW 5 Series for Highway Patrol

Victoria Police has confirmed BMW will provide up to 80 of its 530d sedans to be used as highway patrol cars starting in early 2018.

The turbo diesel straight-six powered executive-sized cars will be ‘fleet-spec’, or entry-level, and will not feature the luxury features expected from a regular 5 Series.

Road Policing Command assistant commissioner Doug Fryer says the BMW has been proven as an effective policing vehicle overseas in countries such as England and (of course) Germany which utilise the executive sedans.

“BMW has come to the party and worked with us on making sure their cars are as fit for purpose as possible,” Fryer says.

“They are the only company to date that has been able to provide a factory fitted ‘police pack’ making the commercial agreement an extremely attractive value for money decision.

“The BMW 530d meets our safety and performance standards as it has been subjected to the evaluation tests that underpin our vehicle safety classification system.

“We are looking forward to their delivery and the opportunity to enhance the operational and performance needs of our members.

“BMW has a proven history, used widely throughout Europe as police vehicles, and most importantly is one of the world leaders when it comes to safety in cars.”

With the death of the locally built Ford, and soon Holden and Toyota, limiting future cost-effective options for Australia’s police services, they’ve had to look overseas.

This has recently resulted in a great deal of interest in Kia’s Stinger GT as a potential highway patrol car, while the Ford Mustang was also considered for a long time before it was ditched for underperformance in testing, reinstated as a candidate, then ditched again.

VicPol has already welcomed an Audi RS4 Avant and a Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S to the Highway Patrol fleet, but in more promotional roles than active duty vehicles.