Corgi Vanguards VA15103 Ford Transit Custom Leader, West Yorkshire Police cars

The brilliant original 1965 Ford Transit transformed the small to medium commercial vehicle market. It was just what the business world needed at the time, and it also quickly became the backbone of the UK’s fleet of emergency vehicles. Over the years Transits have carried out nearly every public service vehicle role there is, from ambulances to fire and rescue units or police K9 deployment.

Almost a million were made in the first ten years of production and the total amount of Transits produced now stands at well over eight million, a figure that continues to grow as the much-expanded Transit range remains one of the most popular and capable in the sector.

The police continue to use the Transit in a variety of roles and the vehicle modelled entered service in early 2019 as a Crime Scene Investigation unit with West Yorkshire Police. It carried the large amount of specialist equipment needed by modern forensic officers and was specified with twin sliding doors, one on each side, so it could be accessed quickly by a team of officers working together on different aspects of a case.

West Yorkshire Police leads the team of Crime Scene Investigators, which is a shared Scientific Support Service working with the four forces in the Yorkshire and Humber region, Humberside, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire Police. This enables resources to be deployed wherever and whenever they are needed.