If you’ve grown used to looking out for the classic white Baltimore police car, you’re going to have to re-train your eyes–the Baltimore Police Department is slowly replacing its current white cruisers with black Chevy Caprices.
The BPD brass decided to make the switch to new vehicles with a sleeker profile and a new color scheme in order to improve officer morale, the Baltimore Sun reports. One community member thinks the cars will find approval with the young folks: “You’re reaching into the millennial generation, and they’re into a more modern and sleek look,” Joyce Green, president of the Central District Police Community Relations Council, told the Sun. A previous move from white cars to black ones was scrapped back in 2001, when Martin O’Malley–then mayor–thought that black cop cars looked too tough, the Sun reports.
The new look, which was chosen by a panel of BPD officers, includes a blue, white, and yellow design on a black background; a diagonal ray projects an image of openness, or force, or something. Okay, it’s not amazing design. But it’s also not as awful-looking as these cars–so count your blessings.
Attempt at intimidation. As if the police aren’t already intimidating (and abusive) enough.