A large white car with a red stripe on the side moving along highway
A West Midlands Police Rover SD1 circa 1985

In British slang, a "jam sandwich" or "jam butty" is a police car with a red stripe applied to the side.

History

Large white van with red horizontal stripe along the midline and Police lettering near roof
Mercedes Sprinter at London's Admiralty Arch (2014)

The term came into common use in the 1970s, when such cars changed from the traditional blue and white colour scheme to white/grey with a broad fluorescent orange stripe along the side. This colour scheme is reminiscent of jam sandwiched between two slices of white bread, hence the name. The slang was popularised on TV shows such as The Bill, The Sweeney and Minder; as well as spreading through the use of CB radio. It is still in common use, although increasingly police cars use Battenburg markings.

A "jam sandwich" marking based on the one used by the Metropolitan Police Service

In November 2012, London's Metropolitan Police Service began to replace the liveries of its marked vehicles from the 'jam sandwich' style to Battenburg markings,[1][2] in line with other police forces' marked police vehicles. In the Metropolitan Police Service, the term 'jam sandwich' now refers not to a car with a specific role, but to the car's livery only. Most jam sandwich-liveried vehicles are the remaining older models of police vehicles that have not yet been replaced, and public order carriers.

A Rover SD1 Vitesse previously used by Grampian Police and restored as an episode of UK television series For The Love of Cars was sold in 2015 at the National Exhibition Centre to the Grampian Transport Museum for what was reported as a world record auction price for the Rover model.[3]

British Transport Police Nissan Terrano, 2004

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jacobs, Luke (19 November 2012). "Met Police cars to adopt Battenburg style livery". London24. Archived from the original on 1 May 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  2. ↑ Davenport, Justin (19 November 2012). "Police union chokes as Battenberg replaces jam sandwich". Evening Standard. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. ↑ Strachan, Graeme (14 January 2015). "'Jam sandwich' police car comes home". The Courier (Dundee). Retrieved 6 November 2020.
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