FWD cars have their niche with the government. Definately not in the Highway Patrol, but they would be fine for town cops.

BTW, what kind of Ford are they using now? The Five-Hundred? Isn't the Crown Vic discontinued?

You'll end up having V8 Camaro, Charger, and Mustang chase cars...

 

I have received about a 50%-50% mix on Impala reports. I know many around my neck of the woods that wont buy anymore. Ford still has the Crown Vic for Police Cars...right now sceduled to be on tap until 2014. They dont sell them to the public anymore, only to rental fleets and police. We get tons of vehicle info on an almost daily basis and I try to stay up on whats going on in the police car biz. The Impala tests well, but it doesn't seem to do as well in real life scenarios. Eats brakes and tires quicker. Charger is a great option, albeit a bit smaller and PD's LOVE them with the HEMI. Last I heard is that the "Police Package" cars dont count agaist their CAFE numbers, so we will still have V8's for some time...what will ultimately be their demise will be $6 or $7 gas prices.

I believe the opposite will be true...
As I mentioned in the above post the CAFE regs dont apply to PD cars or so is the claim. In addition Mopar is in the midst of designing the next generation V-8 Hemi. Ford has numerous high efficiency V-8 in the design phase, so V-8s aren't going anywhere, at least as far as police cars go. I think when GM discontinued the Caprice/Roadmaster/Fleetwood lines, they just bailed out on that whole market to focus on other pursuits, (no pun intended) Ford loved it as they now have 85% of the PD car market.
It is my belief that money will be what motivates departments to go smaller, not regulations.