A Sacramento County Sheriff Dodge Charger is taking social media by storm this week, not for getting into car chases or any sick jumps, but for showing up a little bit outside their jurisdiction — over 5,500 miles away in Poland.
Two videos going around social media appeared to show a sheriff’s patrol car from Sacramento County, California cruising around the streets of Gniezno, Poland. Aside from the European plates, the Dodge Charger patrol car looks legit, so much so that CBS News reached out to Sacramento County Sheriff’s to find out just how the hell one of its vehicles ended up in Europe. The department confirmed that the vehicle isn’t from the fleet but surprisingly admitted that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
CBS13 took the video to sheriff’s spokesperson Sergeant Amar Gandhi who said this isn’t the first time they’ve seen this kind of video. The catch: It’s not an official county vehicle.
“We first caught wind of this, I mean, years back and turns out to be several hobbyists in Europe that like to collect American cars and repaint them, refinish them with police and law enforcement style finishes on there,” Gandhi said. “And, luckily, we’ve become pretty popular in a few countries.”
Europeans have a proud tradition of creating small pockets of American car culture. Think of folk in Finland’s rock-a-billy “Raggare” scene who favor old Detroit hot rods. The dedication is the same. Owners do them up with full police details that are so convincing, you’d think that sheriff’s departments in the U.S. were sending officers over to patrol. Hobby websites online supply owners with decals, stickers and emblems from departments from all over the U.S., including the Los Angeles Police Department and the New York Police Department.
Digging around online, you’ll find out this community is pretty large in parts of continental Europe and the UK Some of these owners are so dedicated they even go for obscure departments from parts of the country you probably never knew existed. This Reddit post from November 2024 shows a Dodge Charger police car in Europe wearing Greenwood, Mississippi Police Department decals. A news article from Florida in 2021 highlighted an English car enthusiast living in Scotland who drives a ninth-generation Chevy Impala police car done up to look like a police cruiser from Sarasota, Florida. Even as far back as nearly a decade ago this was going on. A video from 2015 shows someone spotting three Crown Victoria’s on the streets of London; one was done up to look like an NYPD cruiser and the other two have Texas State Trooper decals.
So what exactly makes these owners choose these random liveries? It seems it comes down to personal preference, as the owner of the Sarasota Impala, Caleb Keogh, explained to Patch.com:
“I loved the color scheme and the shade of blue being used, and I thought it was the perfect design to put my car into,” he said. “This is how I adopted the Sarasota livery to my car, and while it’s not a perfect mirror image (there are a few differences to the well-trained eye) I have tried to replicate the livery as best as I can. Naturally, police departments don’t give out the graphic sizes, colors and patterns, so I like to think it’s a good replica of what you have and see in Sarasota, Florida.”
Keogh was also drawn to the small-town feel of Sarasota.
“I spent a long time trying to find the perfect livery. While there are departments who are well known, like the New York police, who use the Impala, I really wanted something that would be unique and stand out,” he said. “Sarasota PD was just that, a small enough department that people from outside America may not have heard about.”
As for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s, the department’s livery seems to be popular with Europeans as well. In addition to Poland, Sacramento County Sheriff Sergeant Amar Gandhi told CBS that sheriff’s vehicles have been spotted in Germany, England and Iceland. While doing this kind of thing would land an American citizen in jail for trying to impersonate a police officer, it’s not a problem for Europeans to do it. European hobbyists told CBS that as long as they don’t activate the lights and sirens on the cars the vehicles are perfectly legal. Gandhi even seemed to imply that Sacramento County Sheriffs are flattered by it.
“They’re very creative, and again, we like to see it. It’s not really bothering us by any stretch. And again, if you’re viewing out there, and you see our car in some unique location. Please let us know. Tag us in the social media. We love seeing,” Gandhi told CBS.
