FL Highway Patrol Wins National ‘Best Looking Cruiser’ Contest

FLORIDA — The Florida Highway Patrol beat out law enforcement agencies across the country to win the American Association of State Troopers’ 2023 “Best Looking Cruiser” contest.

The contest reached 2,927,500 people on Facebook and more than 1 million people voted on images of each agency’s submitted photo of their cruiser from July 17 to 30.

Florida state troopers submitted an image of their cruiser with a grinning gator posed in front of it. FHP took home more than 181,000 votes in the contest.

Behind Florida, California earned the number two spot with more than 142,000 votes. New Mexico earned the lowest number of votes with 81.

“We did it and we absolutely couldn’t have done it without all of you who voted, shared, liked, posted (and) the list goes on,” FHP wrote in a Facebook post. “We are so thankful. Thank you to (the) American Association of State Troopers for hosting this contest! We also want to thank all of the other states who gave us so many laughs throughout this (two) weeks, the entertainment was unmatched! Again, thank you to all.”

Retired Maj. John J. Bagnardi said in a statement on the AAST website, “Numerous states, including Florida, seemed to have a fantastic time with the back-and-forth challenging and good-hearted ribbing. Looking at the behind-the-scenes videos in creating their photos, I think the states made some fantastic partnerships and lifelong supporters. We can’t thank the public enough for their participation with the voting and fun contest rhetoric. We truly enjoyed reading the back and forth of everyone supporting their state and their favorite cruiser photo! We couldn’t be happier with the positive interaction between the public and the states.”

Many agencies used their social media posts about the contest to promote traffic safety, as well, Bagnardi said.

The top 13 states that received the most votes will be featured in a wall calendar that will benefit the AAST Foundation, which pays for member dependents’ high educational scholarships.

The states included in the calendar will be Florida, California, Nevada, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Massachusetts, Tennessee and New Hampshire.