Thread: Maryland State Police testing Valor?

I was on Route 100 today, and I'm pretty sure I saw an MSP car with a Valor on it. Can anyone advise if MSP is exploring other options, aside from the current Liberties? The Valor was QUITE bright, even under bright daytime sunlight; I was across the road when I saw it (bear in mind that 100 is at least 6 lanes - 3 in each direction, and I was at the top of a ramp entering onto 100).

Sure are. I was with a night shift Waterloo trooper at a collision on 95 at 100 a few months back. From what she told me, MSP has 3-4 of them. Waterloo has one and the others are spread out over the state. I like it, but it's too bulky looking. The new Tahoes still have Liberties, though.

And also, I was in Ocean City this past weekend and spotted a Valor on one of the OCPD cars. It was so bright during the day I could see it from at least 10 blocks away. And, a buddy of mine said that PC07 Cockeysville in Baltimore County got a Valor to try out a little while ago. Go figure.. I guess Federal wants BCoPD's business again.

Originally Posted by swat247

And also, I was in Ocean City this past weekend and spotted a Valor on one of the OCPD cars. It was so bright during the day I could see it from at least 10 blocks away. And, a buddy of mine said that PC07 Cockeysville in Baltimore County got a Valor to try out a little while ago. Go figure.. I guess Federal wants BCoPD's business again.

I saw a Valor on OCPD's car last year, when I was there for the MSFA convention (getting ready to go again!)

Fed is trying to get the Valor out in the market and they are making a strong push. My dad's department just picked one up from the Fed regional dealer for roughly $1700 if I remember correct. I think they are doing this through the entire country.

There's a trooper that patrols the 83 & 695 area with one. I've seen several times... I just don't like how high they set on the cars. Otherwise I love the bar.

Seth

Seth, did you get my text the other day? I was up at the Baltimore City fire boat, and saw your helicopter take off (naturally, I took a picture). Was just wondering if you were flying on Wednesday.

As to the Valor, that sounds like it may be an issue with the hook kit?

+1 on the Valor mount. The one I saw sat ungodly high on the roof as well. Not sure why they mounted them like that. That's MSP for you, lol.

Have you happened to see one of our new Chargers trolling around recently? They've just started being pushed out in the past 2-3 weeks. Lights GALORE...

Originally Posted by swat247

+1 on the Valor mount. The one I saw sat ungodly high on the roof as well. Not sure why they mounted them like that. That's MSP for you, lol.

Have you happened to see one of our new Chargers trolling around recently? They've just started being pushed out in the past 2-3 weeks. Lights GALORE...

Is the full lighting package going on every marked Charger? Wow...and yet, still limited intersection visibility...

DSC09167 (Large).JPGDSC09169 (Large).JPG

Also, I don't know if you know the answer, but why doesn't HCPD use the built-in SignalMaster function on their bars? I may have seen one car with the bar on warn, but NEVER any direction left, right, or center out.

Originally Posted by Doug

Seth, did you get my text the other day? I was up at the Baltimore City fire boat, and saw your helicopter take off (naturally, I took a picture). Was just wondering if you were flying on Wednesday.

As to the Valor, that sounds like it may be an issue with the hook kit?

Hey Doug,

No I didn't get you text...?? I was off Wednesday, but am working today ) The mounting kits on the Valors jus seem to be quite high. I feel like they should hug the roofline... It would look much more streamline IMHO. But hey what do I know... I'm not an engineer ;o)
Seth

Originally Posted by C17LVFD

Hey Doug,

No I didn't get you text...?? I was off Wednesday, but am working today ) The mounting kits on the Valors jus seem to be quite high. I feel like they should hug the roofline... It would look much more streamline IMHO. But hey what do I know... I'm not an engineer ;o)
Seth

Hmmm...well, here's the pic (yes, I know it's off topic from my original post!)

DSC09569.jpg

I wonder if there's any way to lower the bar so it's closer to the roof?

Originally Posted by Doug

I wonder if there's any way to lower the bar so it's closer to the roof?

FedSig wind-tunnel tests their bars to 150mph. They found that mounting the bar a bit higher actually reduces the wind noise as the bar is in 'clean' air, not air that is all turbulent from coming over the windshield. Their installation manuals actually recommend mounting the bars as high on the mounting feet adjustment slots as possible. I thought this was an error in the instruction manual so I contacted their senior engineer, and he confirmed that the manual was correct.

That said, I have a Valor on my demo car and I have it on its lowest setting, and there is no obnoxious wind noise at all. Mind you I don't get over about 110km/hr (65mph).

Thanks, Mark! What are your thoughts on the bar? Is there a way to have multi-color light heads (for example, red and amber or red and white), but only use one color at a time (the white would be for takedown, or the amber for SignalMaster functionality)? I guess that all depends on the factory programming?

Mark is right on, they really put these bars through a lot of testing. It is interesting to hear the story about how this light bar came to be. Also, on the chargers they want the pads to be on the high part of the roof, the outside edge. You can only get about half the pad on it, but the photos they sent me show it that way. I had a problem with the hook bottoming out so we ended up putting them down on the roof see we could get more space between the hook and the bar. Engineering was okay with it just said to get the pads as close to the edge as possible.

The lightbar can be ordered a few ways, we get the red/white on one side, blue/white other on front. Then red/amber on one side, blue amber on the back. The white is an option that you enable in the programming software of the Smartsiren, just a checkbox.

I attached a couple photos:

Interesting. Is the software publicly available? I'd be interested in taking a gander at it...

Doug, sent you a PM on another topic.......

Doug-

They do have signalmaster capabilities believe it or not. They all have mini-smart sirens now and one button cycles through the left/right/center out patterns. I'd venture to say 90% of the officers do not have a clue about it haha. It's just like the few cars that have the Rumbler. The officers that drive them don't even know it's there!

And yep, all of the new Chargers have that lighting package. They don't come that way, do they? I've noticed all of the new Chevy Caprices have a similar "all-out" package as well.

PS-

I spy some traffic guys on that collision photo..It's on 29 I'm guessing...And since 7 responded....maybe NB near South Entrance? I'm not super familiar with the boxes, though..

Originally Posted by swat247

Doug-

They do have signalmaster capabilities believe it or not. They all have mini-smart sirens now and one button cycles through the left/right/center out patterns. I'd venture to say 90% of the officers do not have a clue about it haha. It's just like the few cars that have the Rumbler. The officers that drive them don't even know it's there!

And yep, all of the new Chargers have that lighting package. They don't come that way, do they? I've noticed all of the new Chevy Caprices have a similar "all-out" package as well.

PS-

I spy some traffic guys on that collision photo..It's on 29 I'm guessing...And since 7 responded....maybe NB near South Entrance? I'm not super familiar with the boxes, though..

Close....I spend a good bit of time with 10C (Rivers Park), and Nick (Traffic 14) from TES is also friends with them, so he pops up from time to time. I want to get with him about doing some shots of his vehicle, too.

You and me, both! He takes good care of it. I actually saw him at a charity event tonight...it's been awhile since I've seen him. Occasionally when we're chatting over Imobile, I'll pull up his location and sure enough he's at 10 or sometimes 7.

So swing by 10, too!

Originally Posted by swat247

Doug-

They do have signalmaster capabilities believe it or not.

Valors have signalmaster capabilities, if that's what you mean. The default bar actually comes dual colour to the rear with 8 amber modules as the 2nd colour, so we always order it even if the customer doesn't currently use SM - you never know if they'll want to change in the future, or have a special-purpose vehicle that it'll go on, etc.

We're just putting a couple 51" on new Ford UI's. I'll try to post some pics when done.

Doug -

Took these for you at District Court today. I ran into that same trooper that I met on 95 that one night.

Thanks!

$2000+ lightbar: check
Push bumper: check
Modern radar: check
Transport cage: missing= FAIL

Nothing against the awesome lightbar, just think some money should be spent on an officer safety item that they don't have instead of upgrading something that already works well.

Originally Posted by RL1

$2000+ lightbar: check
Push bumper: check
Modern radar: check
Transport cage: missing= FAIL

Nothing against the awesome lightbar, just think some money should be spent on an officer safety item that they don't have instead of upgrading something that already works well.

I'm sure SWAT247 can shed more light on this, but I believe the norm (at least in our county) is that the patrol cars do NOT have cages (some do, but I believe that most don't).

Doug's right. Not many of our cruisers have cages. I, for one, would prefer cages in all of the cars. Baltimore County PD has them in most, if not all, cars (marked and unmarked).

MSP has a weird tradition of putting their prisoners in the front passenger seat. As far as I know, NONE of their cars have cages. If you ask me, that's a huge officer safety issue. But they're good at what they do. So I don't judge lol.

I'm not quite sure why they're looking for a replacement for all their Liberty bars. I think they work quite well. It's very distinct on their cars. All they need is to add some secondary warning, perhaps a TLF and a deck light, and they'd be good to go.

The cage is a required piece of equipment by law in MN for squds that regularly transport prisoners...good law...

Originally Posted by swat247

Doug -

Took these for you at District Court today. I ran into that same trooper that I met on 95 that one night.

Why does the front of the lightbar look so much closer to the roof than the back? It looks like it is pointing at the roof.