So you think your country's police car is tough?

I frequently see the above image (in its uncropped form) showing various top-end police cars around the world, usually poking fun at some other country. And I figured I'd weigh in with a vehicle from my home country.

Nobody ever gives a shoutout to the Northern Ireland police (PSNI, formerly RUC) Land Rover (known as the Tangi). So here it is:

And no, this isn't a military police vehicle or anything like that. This is a regular-ass police vehicle.

They were needed more during the height of the Troubles, when riots and violence in the streets was rife. Thankfully these days, they don't need to be deployed too often - but if you spend much time in NI, especially around Belfast, you may catch a glimpse of one. Normally, the police use more "regular" vehicles, like the Focus, Astra, Mondeo etc.

The Tangi is designed and built in-house by police engineers. It features bars for the windows which can be raised and lowerd as needed, and heavy reinforcement against bullets and other projectiles.

They're also very low because, let's be honest - these things aren't going off-road. Keeping them low stops people sneaking IEDs under them.

Some of them also feature the "Dawson Roof:"

This roof was developed after a drogue bomb badly damaged the roof of a vehicle without one. The crew inside had raised their riot shields to the ceiling just before the IED exploded, which saved them from injury, and led to the idea of a secondary, angled raised roof on top of the vehicle which would either deflect or bear the brunt of an IED, protecting its occupants.

Not much to say here. They're very sparse inside, and utilitarian.

NONE SHALL PASS.

Image credits on each photos.