Zombie cop cars? Police apparently forced to un-retire Crown Vics due to chip shortage

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A Louisiana police force will apparently be forced to un-retire some of its older cop cars since the chip shortage is keeping new cruisers from being added to its fleet.

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We’re going to say it: the jokes the Slidell Police Department posted on Facebook about its run-down Ford Crown Victorias “[rising] from the dead,” accompanied by an image of a moss-covered Vic, have us wondering just how serious they are. (Maybe they just wanted us to lichen subscribe to their social media?)

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But New Orleans, Louisiana-based WDSU News Channel 6 apparently followed up on the story, and quoted Slidell PD’s Public Information Officer, Daniel Seuzeneau, as confirming, yes, Slidell police had orders in for new cop cars from “Chevy, Ford, and Dodge” that haven’t been filled in over a year, and that none of the automakers will take orders for 2022 cruisers either.

The force’s Facebook post blames the new cruisers’ delayed delivery on the ongoing microchip shortage, which General Motors CEO Mary Barra recently said she doesn’t expect the industry to see relief from until late 2022.

Which all makes it sound like, yeah, these zombie cop cars might actually be a thing. The Panther-platformed cruisers, which at the end of the model’s life span in 2011 were built in St. Thomas Ontario, were beloved by many patrol units across North America, so we expect at least a few officers in Slidell won’t complain about getting behind the wheel of the familiar Crown Vics again.