Junk in my trunk

I'm posting this in the Ask a Cop forum, but if any civilians have any good ideas, I'm open to them as well.

In short, the trunk of my patrol car looks like a family of gypsies moved in, as my dear departed dad would say.

I tried buying those "trunk organizers" that you see in police catalogs, but they are pretty useless- at least to me. I tried using plastic containers but they become brittle and fall apart after a few months.

Basically I'm looking for ideas on how to sort and orgainize the crap in the trunk of my patrol car.

I have books (law/policy manuels), papers (forms), a rifle, toys (for DV calls), a spare uniform, and a first aid kit. Not to mention the trash I probably need to throw out.

So any ideas on how or what to use to keep this stuff organized, easy to reach, and water resistant while in my trunk?

Also if my brother/sister officers think I need to add stuff, I'm open to suggestions. It is an Impala so traffic cones ain't gonna happen.

Thanks in advance!

Measure trunk floor dimensions (or get them from the manual, if available.) Mark out said dimension on the ground with masking tape. Move stuff you need around within that box until it all fits together (yeah, you can obviously do multiple layers etc). Then mark lines between items with tape.

Measure dimensions of "boxes" created by this action, and. paying attention to the contours of the trunk interior sides, either 1) build wood boxes (painted or stained, with lids for your water-resistant needs) at those sizes and lay them out in the same configuration, or 2) find good quality plastic boxes (ala Rubbermaid) that will fit together in roughly those dimensions. Either way, I'd recommend drilling some small holes for drainage at the edges of all boxes, and vent holes at the top of tight-fitting plastic lids, lest your gear develop the funky odor.

I had two good sturdy rubbermaid totes side by side when I had a take home.

Now that I don't, I don't have half the stuff I did since I have to move it back and forth all the time.

I have one of those extra sturdy Rubbermaid containers. They sell them in the automotive section at Wal-Mart. I keep all my extra stuff in there. We don't have take homes but are assigned a particular unit from the pool. If my pool car goes to the shop, I or one of my partners, will take out the box and put it in another unit. They are sturdy, water resistant, and last forever.

Most of our guys who are in cars remove the spare tire. Other than that, their trunks are packed to the brim regardless. Thats the advantage to having a truck as a squad, More than enough room.

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Originally Posted by ManImBored

I have one of those extra sturdy Rubbermaid containers. They sell them in the automotive section at Wal-Mart. I keep all my extra stuff in there. We don't have take homes but are assigned a particular unit from the pool. If my pool car goes to the shop, I or one of my partners, will take out the box and put it in another unit. They are sturdy, water resistant, and last forever.

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I had the same thing. I will, however, say that if a fire extinguisher goes off in the trunk, the powder WILL find it's way into that container. :D

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Originally Posted by Cidp24

I had the same thing. I will, however, say that if a fire extinguisher goes off in the trunk, the powder WILL find it's way into that container. :D

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And your MDT should it be in the trunk for some reason, just ask my partner. Right now we have enough MDTs for each officer to have one. Since we share cars in the pool, someone put his MDT in the trunk when they did shift change. Sometime during the shift the fire extinguisher went off in the trunk and that powder got into his computer. Luckily it just discolored the metal on the Toughbook some.

Can you put some of that into various bags? When I had a take home, I my full gunbelt in a gym bag (I was a detective), my body armor in it's carry bag, and so on. Kept everything neat, and when I had to change cars, it was fairly easy to do since everything was together. Also kept it easy to find stuff because it was grouped by function.

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Originally Posted by ManImBored

And your MDT should it be in the trunk for some reason, just ask my partner. Right now we have enough MDTs for each officer to have one. Since we share cars in the pool, someone put his MDT in the trunk when they did shift change. Sometime during the shift the fire extinguisher went off in the trunk and that powder got into his computer. Luckily it just discolored the metal on the Toughbook some.

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We have car partners. I had one REALLY lazy one that would leave all her crap in the car and never gas up at the end of the shift. I'd have to move her dueffel bags around to put my gear in the trunk. And she was a complete slob, the car constantly smelled like BO and stale lunchmeat.

One day I had enough. After months of leaving little notes to please knock it off, I put all her gear into evidence as found personal property on a Friday night. We lock all evidence in lockers in the evidence room, and evidence techs don't come empty the lockers until Monday morning. Then on another day, I burned through an entire tank of gas and left the car in the lot running until it ran out of gas and died.

Over 36 years I have tried EVERYTHING! What worked the best for me was buying 2 large raid duty bags and 2 smaller ones and arranging them to suit my priorities.

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Originally Posted by ChesCopPodz

We have car partners. I had one REALLY lazy one that would leave all her crap in the car and never gas up at the end of the shift. I'd have to move her dueffel bags around to put my gear in the trunk. And she was a complete slob, the car constantly smelled like BO and stale lunchmeat.

One day I had enough. After months of leaving little notes to please knock it off, I put all her gear into evidence as found personal property on a Friday night. We lock all evidence in lockers in the evidence room, and evidence techs don't come empty the lockers until Monday morning. Then on another day, I burned through an entire tank of gas and left the car in the lot running until it ran out of gas and died.

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We used to have assigned cars, but that fell by the wayside while I was a detective. Meanwhile, we got a couple of LPR cars, which the captain wants to have at least one of on the road at all times. I was the lucky "winner" on my current squad, because for the sergeant to assign anyone else would take actually confronting someone or telling them to do it.

But the headache is that washing an LPR car means taking the cameras off. Not hard... but more than just pulling into the garage. I seem to be the only person that'll wash that car. Add to that somebody on the other side who is afraid of the GPS function (you may wish to read that as "is afraid to get caught doing something stupid that they aren't supposed to or just sitting around all shift") and magically disables the thing... I'm getting real fed up with them, and the quiet word to their sergeants hasn't helped. Notes are going down on vehicle inventories.

Oh man. Tonight when I switch out my spare car back into my take home I'll take a photo of what I carry.

Axe, shovel, crow bar, jack, spare tire, flares, flares, flares, shotgun, ammo, ammo, ammo, paperwork, winter survival gear, extra uniforms, crime scene bag, body bags, body bag liners, blankets, spike strip, cruiser jacket, kevlar helmet, first aid kit, fire extinguisher...

Soon to add MRE's, sleeping bag, travel go bag/survival gear bag and more. It's a miracle I'm not dragging the exhaust.

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Originally Posted by Xiphos

Oh man. Tonight when I switch out my spare car back into my take home I'll take a photo of what I carry.

Axe, shovel, crow bar, jack, spare tire, flares, flares, flares, shotgun, ammo, ammo, ammo, paperwork, winter survival gear, extra uniforms, crime scene bag, body bags, body bag liners, blankets, spike strip, cruiser jacket, kevlar helmet, first aid kit, fire extinguisher...

Soon to add MRE's, sleeping bag, travel go bag/survival gear bag and more. It's a miracle I'm not dragging the exhaust.

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Uh, yeah... given where you work, you need that stuff. Probably oughta keep a space heater there, too!

Me? I got Metropolitan or whatever funeral home for the body bags. The Amphora if I get hungry. (enough) DPW if I need to dig. (Hell, we can't even get the captain to go for getting us trained to use the chainsaws so we can clear some of the stupid fallen trees, instead of waiting 2 hours for the duty man to get there, and another hour for him to look at, decide it is a tree in the road, and needs to be cut up, so he's gotta call the arborist... And, no, I'm not joking.)

http://i54.tinypic.com/2jfht9y.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/168h5e0.jpg

You need a bigger trunk, Xiphos! :D

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Originally Posted by Jenna

You need a bigger trunk, Xiphos! :D

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He needs to ask for a Ford Expedition!

Get an extra tough rubbermaid tub just short enough it fits in the rear of the trunk just under the spare tire.
I use a metal file container for my paperwork and my duty bag for my crim. code books/nik kits and misc. items. is that a less lethal shotgun? They don't equip the cars with rifle racks?

you could squeeze the boots and shovel up into the voids between the spare tire.

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Originally Posted by ChesCopPodz

We have car partners. I had one REALLY lazy one that would leave all her crap in the car and never gas up at the end of the shift. I'd have to move her dueffel bags around to put my gear in the trunk. And she was a complete slob, the car constantly smelled like BO and stale lunchmeat.

One day I had enough. After months of leaving little notes to please knock it off, I put all her gear into evidence as found personal property on a Friday night. We lock all evidence in lockers in the evidence room, and evidence techs don't come empty the lockers until Monday morning. Then on another day, I burned through an entire tank of gas and left the car in the lot running until it ran out of gas and died.

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LOL! I feel you brother. When I was on active duty in the AF we had pool cars. Some the smells and trash I would find are hard to describe......:o

Both the PD that I worked at and my current gig that I have now have take-homes. Nothing beats having your own assigned car that no one else drives but you.:D