I was never a motor officer, but the State Police District (other states call them posts, or barracks) I was assigned to had two of them. I suspect they used 2 wheel Harley's partially out of tradition. Overall costs could also be a present day factor now. A TG gets less MPG, has more rubber to replace, higher initial costs, etc.....

 

.....here are a couple reasons a local municipality would not buy a tri glide for law enforcement purposes other that writing parking tickets.......number one...it costs way to much on initial purchase....number two....it is real hard to split lanes with one....number three...it cant catch traffic violators....is that not enough.....????
I was a motor cop in the los angeles area and cant think of a reason why that would work...........I love my trike and my two wheelers....yeah.

 

Some police departments in our area lease the bikes. If there is no lease deal for a trike that could also be a deciding factor along with the ones mentioned?

 

From 1929 to 73 (44) years, every major city had many Servi-Cars in service! Between 69 & 71, I had a Deal with the Biggest H-D Dealer in N.H., Pete Forest H-D, IN Manchester, NH! I must have Flipped a Dozen of them, some had Electric Start, as early as 1961! I'd buy them for $200., sell for $400.! I go to a lot of Auctions today, I wished, I'd saved them all!