I've done some thinking on this since my original post. The conclusion I came too is that the reason that police vehicles are de facto high end production cars

I've done some thinking on this since my original post. The conclusion I came too is that the reason that police vehicles are de facto high end production cars is because of buying power. The fed runs USPS so they buy 100% of the postal fleet. That's a lot of buying power. So much, infect, that companies will trip over each other trying to sell the fed their vehicles. The fed has all the chips, and can dictate practically every aspect of the final design including price and production rates. As the fed, the entire market is just YOU. But local police departments are fragmented. They all face different budgetary challenges and their financial resources are divided. The market is crowded and suppliers are geographically splintered. The market for police vehicles is ripe for the car companies to divide and conquer. Why would they even make small cars with small engines when the margin on larger cars is better? Maybe I'm wrong and there's more behind the scenes than meets the eye, but I think if police departments pooled their buying power into one cohesive purchasing entity that they would get more favorable deals from suppliers.