Wiktionary
n. A vehicle used by a police officer when on duty.
WordNet
n. a car in which policemen cruise the streets; equipped with radiotelephonic communications to headquarters [syn: cruiser, police cruiser, patrol car, prowl car, squad car]
Wikipedia
A police car (also called a police cruiser, prowler, squad car, radio car or radio mobile patrol (RMP) ) is a ground vehicle used by police for transportation during patrols and to enable them to respond to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transporting officers so they can reach the scene of an incident quickly, transporting and temporarily detaining suspects in the back seats, as a location to use their police radio or laptop or to patrol an area, all while providing a visible deterrent to crime. Some police cars are specially adapted for certain locations (e.g. traffic duty on busy roads) or for certain operations (e.g. to transport police dogs or bomb squads). Police cars typically have rooftop flashing lights, a siren, and emblems or markings indicating that the vehicle is a police car. Some police cars may have reinforced bumpers and alley lights, for illuminating darkened allies.
The first police car was a wagon run by electricity fielded on the streets of Akron, Ohio, in 1899. The first operator of the police patrol wagon was Akron Police officer Louis Mueller, Sr. It could reach and travel before its battery needed to be recharged. The car was built by city mechanical engineer Frank Loomis. The US$2,400 vehicle was equipped with electric lights, gongs, and a stretcher. The car's first assignment was to pick up a drunken man at the junction of Main and Exchange streets.
Terms for police cars include (police) cruiser, squad car, area car and patrol car. In some places, a police car may also be informally known as a cop car, a black and white, a cherry top, a gumball machine, a jam sandwich or panda car. Depending on the configuration of the emergency lights and livery, a police car may be considered a marked or unmarked unit.
Usage examples of "police car".
The horrified woman drove off for help and flagged down a Benicia police car.
He took the elevator down with Barnes and got in the police car with him.
Though he had come with Crosse in the police car, his own Rolls was waiting for him.
They got into the waiting police car and tore off, siren screaming.
That, Scott told them, was to shoot out the engine of any police car that might try to stop them.
I walked round the front of the Jaguar, the others following, as a second car -- the pursuing police car -- pulled up behind Oregon's.
Don't ask me to explain how I knew it was an unmarked police car, it just had that look.
I checked my rearview mirror, and saw the blue bulbs on the police car whirl to life.
I haven't gone more than four blocks before a police car pulls up alongside me, starts pacing me.
We found the Port Authority police car we'd come in, and I jumped in the front while Kate jumped in the back.
Claude Lebel, who had landed a mile on the other side of the township and been driven to the driveway of the hotel in a police car, walked up to the front door accompanied by Caron who carried a loaded and cocked MAT 49 submachine carbine under the mackintosh slung over his right arm.
It was a small neat car, low-slung, very clean, lighter than a police car, but about the same size.
This one looked up and down the street for a police car, then helped open the passenger door, lifted Anne Pretloe, and carried her limp form through the rear door of the van, where she joined another young woman picked up by another company employee earlier that night.
A police car was skidding and slipping in the quagmire, approaching him.
Now she was picking up extraterrestrial signals and discussing them with a twenty-two-year-old reporter she had just made out with in a police car.