Chicago-built cop car ready for display

Ford Motor Co. will show off a police vehicle it plans to produce in Chicago on Wednesday. 

Officials from Ford and the United Auto Workers will unveil the Police Interceptor at the company's Chicago Assembly Plant on the South Side at an event starting at 2 p.m.

The new Police Interceptor will replace vehicles that were manufactured for law enforcement agencies on the Crown Victoria platform at an Ontario, Canada, assembly plant.

Officials from the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker said in a Las Vegas presentation in March that production of the Crown Victoria police vehicles is expected to end in late 2011 and production of the vehicles in Chicago is expected to begin after that time.

The Police Interceptor sedan will be made on the platform of the Ford Taurus, but production of a utility vehicle is also planned.

Ford said in a statement last year that it held a 75 percent share of the police pursuit vehicle market and sold about 45,000 police vehicles each year.

The Chicago Assembly Plant already produces the Taurus and Lincoln MKS and will produce the Ford Explorer later this year.