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Police Forces across the country moved to using the Mini Cooper in 1965 - which coincided with the cars total dominance of the Rallying scene of the time, and stopped in 1970. With a newly evolved 1275cc engine, un-parallelled handling and reasonable storage space, it was to prove a useful tool in the fight against crime with Britains new motorway networks allowing thieves a quicker escape route than before.
Forces also adopted other top-end models, such as the Sunbeam Tiger, MGB-GT, Lotus Cortina and Jaguars, and although smaller than its counterparts, nobody could argue with the design which combined such incredible manoueverability with fantastic performance.

THE OKD LINE-UP - WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

 OKD 701F      Present owner for last 27 years, awaiting decision to sell or not to sell!

KKD: 440- E OKD: 686 - 709F SKD: 210 – G VKA: 290 – 317H XLV: 101J-127J

Of all the Police Minis, this is the most well known. Peter Laidler - an ex-policeman, has owned this car since 1982. Often heard admitting that 'If I'd have known it was a Police car I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it!' his car is nevertheless a hugely original example,if you leave out the black roof , the lack of overriders,and the 4.5" wheels.
Many parts seen on the car are direct from the Police warehouses that kept the spare roofboxes etc, and Peter spends plenty of time visiting shows far and wide. Until recently, these two cars were the only ex-Police Cooper S's  ever to be seen together at shows. Now in 2009, OKD 686F and OKD 702F have re-emerged, the former restored as a Police car, the latter to be delicately given a slight rally make-over, although all original Police parts will be retained.

Subject of an eight year restoration by Dave Davies,Registrar of the ex-Police Car section of the Mini Cooper Register, this is the sister car to 698F. Now residing in Seattle USA, no expense was spared to get this car right.The bodyshell was sprayed in the wrong shade of Police White, and had to be re-done in BMC WT2. That's attention to detail! With parts from different places like the radio, from the West Midlands Bus Preservation Society, and the acorn blue light and sirens from the Fire Service, it is easy to see why these restorations take more time than most because of the lack of archivists at Police Forces these days.The full story of Daves restoration can be found in the February 2002 edition of Mini Magazine,  available as a back copy.

Featured in Classics Monthly (Spring Edition 09), and Classic & Sportscar June 2009, 698 has just finished an exhaust show season at the final Goodwood Breakfast Club meet of 2009. And it chucked it down!

702F owned by Ken Taylor, will be sympathetically restored to rally spec without losing any of the important police features.

701F, owned by Jon Olds. It's covered less than 1000 miles in 18years, and has been washed three times as a result! Now re-shelled into a Mk I body, it would be good to see this soon.

686F, owned by John Pether and restored by 2008 for Beaulieu.

700F, owned by Paul Harman and under restoration - this is the original shot, the Press & Publicity car of the OKD fleet. Engine now out (June 2009), this should be on the road in due course.

THE OTHER FORCES

Mk I Austin Cooper S, which judging by its location, was a Midlands Traffic Car. The subtle differences between this and its Mk II counterparts can be easily seen ; a bell located on the front grille which was common on Rover 100s, along with blue lights, and the roofbox which, although similar in design to the Mk II, has no sirens. Round type wing mirrors, and 3.5" all steel ventilated Cooper S wheels, painted body colour. Its number plate would indicate to a 1963 build date, although the exact date is unknown.

VKA 303H. Now in America

This Mk II Austin Cooper S is an example from the West Midlands Force. It demonstrates the individuality that each batch was given by its respective area. On this car, note the Lucas Spotlamp and double roof aerials. The roof box is of a similar type to the Liverpool cars. Some of the Mk I heritage still remains; the rectangular wing mirrors, and the grease nipple shrouds which can just be seen at the rear end of the sill, deleted in October '67. 3.5" all steel ventilated Cooper S wheels, now extremely rare indeed, stayed true to the production car specification.

My thanks to Edward Armstrong for sending me details of the UNIQUE Birmingham City Police Car, OOB 20G. One of 5 that saw service with that force, Edward bought it in 1987, and restored it back to Police specs in 1994. The car has glowing tributes from the force, with plenty of history included and has appeared in many books, and at many shows since he has had it. Notable for the fact the original Police driver of the car wrote to Edward after seeing it at the NEC in Birmingham in 1995, PC Neil Cambell re-tells some stories of his experience with the car, and explains why the telephone handset often ended up coiled around the gear lever due to the propensity for it to fall off when  located on the upper dash rail, as on the OKD cars. Restored to a very high standard, thank you Edward for the details.      

Manchester Police line-up of Cooper S cars, circa 1968. Note that in common with the Liverpool cars, grease nipple shrouds are used, but two wing mirrors are apparent. 'POLICE' lettering is more reserved than Liverpool, and the roof boxes look entirely different, with no sirens and a heavily recessed blue light. An arial is centrally placed towards the rear of the roof, and 3.5" wheels are used.

Thanks to Paul Beach for the next two - whereabouts unknown, but below is a Mk III Cooper S, Liverpool again. XLV 102J belongs to friend Randall Johnson and is under restoration in America. Another Liverpool Area Panda car next door