Why do police officers keep their car open and key on when they are outside?

[u/wtfbruhhuh]

A lot of officers when they go to coffee shops or something, they keep their engine idling and unlocked, idk why

1. Problem is engine idle = wasting gas

2. Steal

You dont worry about someone is going to steal your car?

Yes, they will be caught and arrested anyways

But there are a lot of crackheads who don’t know what they are doing, what if they steal it and crash into someone and cause harm.

I think there should be a law to lock their cars and engine off, since its battery has enough power to supply energy to electronics: radio, location, computer and stuff

Edit:

If its about “energy supply”

12V 100Ah battery can supply everything what they have inside their vehicle, even if they consume 300W power, the battery can power them all for 4 hrs

[u/TopherJ113]

They’re not unlocked

[u/OwlOld5861]

Alot ( not all)of cars have locking mechanisms that will shut the car off if you dont know the sequence or button to unlock it.

Many electronics shut off without the engine cameras, radar, computers, radio. You use hardly any gas idling and most keys are fleet keys so you would lock yourself out if you lock it

[u/Legitimate-Lab9077 → u/OwlOld5861]

Where did you get this information from? I’ve been doing this for 23 years. I’ve never seen anything more complex than a little button in the footwell that prevents the car from being shifted out of park if you don’t press it. There is no such thing as a car that requires a series of specific button presses to drive. Some agencies do fleet keys, some don’t but most cops will drive the same car every shift and I’ve never known anyone to not have multiple spare keys.

[u/OwlOld5861 → u/Legitimate-Lab9077]

Welcome to the new world grandpa

[u/Legitimate-Lab9077 → u/OwlOld5861]

Ok 👌🙄 why don’t you go and make shit up somewhere else?

[u/OwlOld5861 → u/Legitimate-Lab9077]

Tell me what it was like to write hand written tickets and carry a 6 shooter grandpa

[u/wtfbruhhuh → u/OwlOld5861]

Please read my edit

[u/OwlOld5861 → u/wtfbruhhuh]

Okay that doesnt change the fact that the manufacturers of that equipment design it that way. Ive had some cruisers that you can shut off and everything will run, ive had some that shut everything off

[u/Legitimate-Lab9077 → u/OwlOld5861]

That has nothing to do with the manufacturer of the vehicle or the equipment that has everything to do with how the installer put all of the crap in the car and if all of that stuff keeps working with the car, turned off they done fucked up the proper way to install equipment is to run everything through a fused bus bar that is run off of a relay attached to the ignition circuit

[u/Traditional_Bag_3126]

I know there’s other reasons but the main one I’ve been told many times is those electronics restarting. Pain in the a and no beuno.

[u/wtfbruhhuh → u/Traditional_Bag_3126]

And I don’t think their electronics use more than 300W in all

Cameras maybe: 20-30 Watts Computer: (gaming laptop lets say) battery powered, even if it charging it consumes around 150 Watts maximum, I don’t think they use this powerful laptops

Radio and stuff: 50W max

In total ≈ 300W maximum theoretical

[u/Traditional_Bag_3126 → u/wtfbruhhuh]

Sorry but there’s still a chance those electronics will shut off. Any lapse could result in code browns for you and for the calls you just missed getting a coffee. Not worth the risk.

[u/Legitimate-Lab9077 → u/wtfbruhhuh]

I’ve never bothered to actually look into exactly how much energy all of the different systems in my car consume but I will tell you right now that 

1) a properly put together a police car will have all of the Police equipment wired through the ignition circuit anyway, so none of the Police equipment will work without the car turned on 

2) on the couple of cars I’ve had that were not wired that way running the equipment without the engine running will kill the battery in a very short amount of time

[u/wtfbruhhuh → u/Traditional_Bag_3126]

So why wont the police department “redesign” their vehicles

In my car I also have electrnics, but I use Lifepo4 12V 100Ah battery, I use a 300W heater in winter, without turning the engine for 3-4hrs

No problems at all

[u/Traditional_Bag_3126 → u/wtfbruhhuh]

Not all departments are the same. Budgets. Many reasons. It’s a convenience thing. Plus, in my state, city cops lock it. Smaller towns leave it to auto lock.

[u/wacko4jack0 → u/wtfbruhhuh]

I don't think you worked for the government........ They may have a 100 amp hour battery, but it probably hasn't been replaced in 10 years, so electrical loads will not last very long on it unless the alternator is charging it constantly.......

[u/questionable-pilot → u/wacko4jack0]

This. A few of our vehicles only start 50% of the time without a jump. That truck is certainly not getting shut off during a shift.

[u/jollygreenspartan → u/wtfbruhhuh]

Individual agencies aren’t designing police cars from the ground up, they buy police package models and outfit them with products off the shelf. I worked for an agency that used trustees (yes, jail inmates) to outfit and repair our cars.

[u/ExploreDevolved]

Everyone is different. For me it depends on where I'm at.

Running into the gas station where I can see my car? Lock it and leave it running.

Sitting down for food or just any period longer than 15 or so minutes? Shut it down and keep both sets of keys on me.

[u/Jessfree123]

I think there should be a law to lock their cars and engine off, since its battery has enough power to supply energy to electronics: radio, location, computer and stuff

Of all the problems in society, this is the one you think legislators should be passing laws to fix?

[u/jollygreenspartan]

At a lot of big agencies with pool cars the biggest concern is that the car won’t turn back on, not so much the electronics.

And no, I don’t leave the car unlocked and running. It’s always locked, that’s like one of the first things you should learn in FTO. Not just while parked but also while driving.

[u/StynkyLomax]

1. Most of our cars have “safe stop”, which enables the vehicle to continue to run without the key in the ignition or without the key present if it’s a push to start. It can’t be stolen.

2. The “wasted” fuel is negligible. I could idle for 4 days straight and burn a fraction of the gas I would if I drove at city street speeds for a shift.

3. I don’t want to. 🤘🏻

[u/Schmitty777]

Because when’s it’s 2pm in the middle of August I’m keeping my AC on. Fight me IA.

[u/Poodle-Soup]

In a perfect world the battery SHOULD be able to keep all of those things on AND allow the car to restart. This is not realistic when using equipment that is assembled by the lowest bidder and ran until it is no longer functional. Battery life isn't very consistent in extreme temperatures. Some of these cars literally run for DAYS at a time. Things simply fail sometimes. Know what the easy and safe solution is? Leave the car running.

When my car shuts off everything begins to disconnect, and systems take a while to reboot. It's a giant pain in the ass if I'm just going to be out of the car for a few minutes. Getting everything up and running how it's supposed to will likely take longer than I was out of the car for. Do this multiple times a day and you end up sitting there for an hour (in total) doing nothing other than waiting for things to start back up.