Proceeds of crime appropriately will be used to pay for the final resting place of the last of a rare breed, a V8 Holden Commodore SSV police pursuit car.
The silver metallic sedan, leased to ACT Policing since 2017, is understood to be the final manual transmission VF Commodore V8 pursuit car to be withdrawn from operational duty across all Australian police jurisdictions.
The honoured vehicle's "retirement" was marked with a small ceremony at ACT Policing headquarters at Belconnen on Thursday, with the ACT government's Police Minister and unabashed revhead Mick Gentleman happy to assist with the farewell.
Sitting to either side of the Commodore for the occasion were two other vehicle exhibits already held in the federal police, including a 1974 Ford Falcon V8 with its single bobble blue light on top and signature "heehaw" siren.
The pristine Australian-made Commodore with its Chevrolet 6.2 litre 304kW engine, which clocked up just 51,000km during its often very rapid service on Canberra's roads, would have fetched well over $90,000 on the open market due to its rarity, specification, mileage and condition.
But instead it will be cossetted and kept under wraps by the Australian Federal Police for the next 12 months, rarely seeing the light of day until it finds it way into the proposed National Police Museum which will be established at Acton next year.
Retired at the same time as the car will be the radio call sign which the car and its driver, Senior Constable Greg Harlovich, carried within Traffic Operations: Tango 51.
In police-speak, under the phonetic radio alphabet the T prefix denotes traffic operations, and the Tango 51 call sign will be affixed to a personalised number plate which will remain with the car.
As the car is a six-speed manual and required specialised training to drive in pursuits, it was assigned to a specific officer who, in this case, was clearly worded up by his Traffic Operations boss, Superintendent Corey Heldon some time ago that his car was destined for a prominent future role in the federal police museum collection and should be looked after most diligently.
Before Holden closed its Australian manufacturing operations in October 2017, like many police jurisdictions across the country, ACT Policing placed multiple orders for V8 Commodores for its traffic operations fleet due to the vehicle's suitability to the often harsh demands of operational duty.
Replacing the Australian-made cars with any equally as robust, well-priced, of the appropriate size and with the suitable performance for occasional pursuit work has been problematic for police right across the country. In the ACT, the replacement has been the much more expensive BMW X3.
"It's an iconic moment for policing in this country; this is the last of the V8 police Commodores you'll see on the streets," ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan said.
"I think when we got rid of Holdens and Fords in this country, it changed policing, unfortunately, probably for the worst.
"These cars were made in Australia for Australian conditions and they got hard-driven, were very sturdy, and we've probably never found something since which offers the same benefits as the Holdens and Fords."
Leasing company SGFleet, which usually would have just stripped the car of its livery and put it up for auction, instead installed a brand new V8 engine and donated it to the museum.
