In the early days, motorcycles were a very popular tool for police. An article from the Hartford Courant dated Dec. 25, 1920 included this testimonial: "... a force of about seventy-five men equipped with motorcycles could do the work well. Motorcycles, it was said, would get the men about their "beats" much more efficiently and expeditiously than horses under existing conditions." All troopers rode motorcycles, and they rode them all year long! These men had very little or no safety equipment, and even less protection against the elements. It has long been rumored that they would line their blouses with newspaper in an effort to keep from freezing. Motor police of this era did not wear helmets or eye protection. They had thin gloves and uniforms did little to provide insulation. The first motorcycles themselves were little more than bicycles with small motors. For many years during the 30's and 40's the Indian Chief motorcycle was the choice of the CSP and most police agencies across the U.S. It was a substantial machine which offered state of the art options and power and it was a popular motorcycle. The CSP deployed a four-cylinder model, with clutch and hand shift on the right side - not an easy bike to ride. At this time windshields began to appear on the motorcycles, offering a vast improvement in safety and protection from the weather. Head and eye protection was still in the future.

Sometime around the late 50's the CSP returned to Harley Davidson as the motorcycle of choice, as did most other agencies. The Duo-Glide and later the Electra-Glide were engineered primarily for law enforcement, and they were a very substantial machine. The example in the photos above was equipped with an integral siren, pursuit lights, windshield and saddlebags. It had a left side "tank shift" and foot operated clutch, so coming to a stop meant that the rider needed to find neutral before he could put that left foot down, making stops and takeoffs, especially to the left, an interesting task.