The way you feel when you spot a cop car probably has a great deal to do with your own life's experiences. Maybe to you they're the clarion sights and sounds of safety and order, or just the impersonal, mechanized face of the police force. Maybe they're an unfortunate reminder of a good night gone wrong, or that traffic ticket you haven't paid yet. Regardless, there's more to a police car than a cop motor, cop tires, and cop shocks.

In the nearly 120 years since the very first police cars hit the road, they've evolved into mobile offices-slash-surveillance units par excellence. There are probably a hell of a lot of things you don't know about cop cars; let's start with these 11.