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The British-English noun Z-car designates a police patrol car.
—Synonyms: panda and jam butty.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED – second edition, 1989) erroneously states that the noun Z-car was coined after Z Cars, the title of a popular British television series, from the radio call-sign zulu allotted therein to a group of such cars.
(This series centred on day-to-day policing in the fictional town of Newtown, in Northern England; produced by the BBC, it ran from January 1962 to September 1978.)
The OED probably makes this erroneous statement because the earliest occurrence of the noun Z-car that this dictionary has recorded is as follows, from the BBC Television programmes for Tuesday 2nd January 1962, published in Radio Times (London: BBC Publications) of Thursday 28thDecember 1961 [page 29, column 2]:
Z Cars: No. 1: Four of a Kind
The call-sign is Zulu—they call them Z-cars. There are two young constables in each, ready to deal with trouble as it happens.
The search for four young men to ‘crew’ the new cars in the tough and troubled district of Newtown.
But, in fact, the title of the television series was borrowed from the noun Z-car, which, from 1959 onwards, designated any of the special crime police patrol cars used in Lancashire, a county of north-western England, on the Irish Sea—as explained in George Harrison’s column Over the Mersey Wall, published in the Liverpool Echo and Evening Express (Liverpool, Lancashire, England) of Tuesday 19th December 1961 [page 2, column 4]:
It seems that whenever anyone has the idea of making a television series or a film about crime and criminals, some pundit in charge immediately yells: “Send a camera crew to Merseyside. That’s the place for meaty crime stuff!”
[…] Now we are to have another. A new television series of the work of police crime patrol cars.
They’ve been spending a great of [sic] time in Liverpool area filming it for production in the New Year.
Producer David Rose tells me: “We have filmed in a number of locations around the city, including the docks and on the East Lancs. Road, near Kirkby.
“The Lancashire County Police are very proud of their crime cars and their crews, and they were as keen as we were to see that the true atmosphere and feeling was in the stories that we used.
So they have given us the fullest co-operation, and we shall have a series of 13 true-to-life stories dealing with the work of the “Z” Cars, as they are known.”
The cars are each manned by two young constables selected for their ability to deal effectively on the spot with any trouble. They are on patrol constantly, day and night. Their radio call sign is the letter “Z”—hence the name for the patrol.
The cars cover an area of more than 2,000 square miles of Lancashire, with a great deal of concentration on the outskirts of Liverpool.
The earliest occurrences of the noun Z-car that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From the Welsh edition of the Liverpool Daily Post (Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales) of Thursday 4th June 1959 [page 1, column 8]:
Z Cars tracking down Lancs. criminals
A fleet of special crime patrol cars brought into use by Lancashire Constabulary in January is helping to find the answer to motorised criminals, said Col. T. E. St. Johnston, Chief Constable of Lancashire, at a press conference yesterday.
The patrols, known as Z Cars, are placed at strategic points in the county and are equipped with two-way radio. The Chief Constable said in the first five months of the new patrols, arrests have gone up by 20 per cent.
It was not intended to use the thirty Z Cars—which bear no police sign—for road pursuits, but in one case information gathered by a patrol had resulted in a suspect’s car being trapped in a road block. The cars are directed by girl wireless operators with the aid of a new electrically controlled plotting board.
2-: From the Lancashire Evening Post (Preston, Lancashire, England) of Thursday 4th June 1959 [page 7, column 5]:
“Z” PATROL CARS CUT CRIME
ARRESTS have gone up by 20 per cent. since January following the introduction of crime patrol cars—known as “Z” cars—said Col. T. E. St. Johnston, Chief Constable of Lancashire, yesterday.
Thirty “Z” cars are stationed at strategic points in the county. Their crews are divorced from ordinary police duties and are ready to answer emergency calls by radio. Sixty per cent of arrests have been made because of quick warnings of crime.
While crime is still increasing the rise so far this year is not so steep as it was in the corresponding period last year.
“Many criminals are now motorised, but we are starting to catch up with them,” said the Chief Constable.
The crime patrols are directed from the Hutton headquarters, where a new electrically-operated plotting board has come into use.
3-: From the Manchester Guardian (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Thursday 4th June 1959 [page 1, column 2]:
SUCCESS OF POLICE “Z” CARS
Arrests up by 20 per centThe Chief Constable of Lancashire, Colonel T. E. St Johnston, said at Preston yesterday that since the introduction of a fleet of special police patrol cars in January, the number of arrests had increased by 20 per cent.
The patrols, known as “Z” cars, are placed at strategic points in the county and are equipped with two-way radio. The Chief Constable said it was not intended to use the 30 “Z” cars, which bear no police sign, for road pursuits. In one case, however, information gathered by a patrol had resulted in a suspected car being trapped in a road block.
The cars were directed by women radio operators using a new electrically controlled plotting board. The patrols were helping to find the answer, he said, to the motorised criminal.
4-: From New Moves In Fight Against Lorry Bandits, published in The Sunday Post (Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland) of Sunday 7th June 1959 [page 7, column 4]:
THEFTS from lorries have rocketed at an alarming rate in recent months.
[…]
In Lancashire a police “crime patrol” is hitting back.
Thirty Z cars have been introduced. They’re in pastel colours, no aerials visible, and the crews wear plain clothes.
