The Volkswagen Crafter becomes a police support vehicle with riot equipment and a cell

The Volkswagen Crafter is one of the best-known commercial vehicles from Volkswagen. The people responsible for this type of vehicle have wanted to transform it into one of the support vehicles for the British police forces. The new Volkswagen Crafter Police Support Unit is based on the Crafter Trendline, which is the version with the greatest wheelbase of the model, but to do so they have had to make several modifications to adapt it to its new role.

The side panels have been replaced, with windows added to them, and the front windscreen has been replaced with a more resistant glass, so that a metal reinforcement is not necessary. Transport capacity is ensured by the load capacity of the Crafter, since up to seven seated people can fit in the rear. The riot equipment can be placed in the load space and there is still room for a cell should it be necessary to hold a person.

The engine powering this police version of the Volkswagen Crafter is a 2.0-litre diesel unit that produces 177 CV. The van can be configured with different drive layouts, with front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and even a four-wheel-drive variant. In all three cases, the engine can be paired with a six-speed manual gearbox or an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

This version of the Volkswagen Crafter has been modified by the specialist company Coleman Milne Specialist Vehicles, which works in collaboration with the German brand to create this type of police vehicle. The van will be on display at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham. In this space dedicated to commercial vehicles, police officials will be able to see and test this model and give their first impressions of what these vehicles, designed to support the police in the UK, offer, and assess whether they could be useful for UK police forces.