DETROIT — The driver never saw it coming, said John Whetsel, sheriff of Oklahoma County, Okla.

The Mini Cooper pulled alongside Whetsel's new, unmarked Dodge Charger police car on an Oklahoma road, looking for a race.

The race didn't last long.

"I won because I had a radio and lights," said Whetsel, who clocked the Mini Cooper at 95 mph before pulling the driver over for a ticket.

Would-be speeders and more serious offenders beware. You could be seeing more Dodge grilles in your rearview mirror with flashing lights.

The Chrysler Group, which had all but dropped out of the police car market over the past five years, is making another run at law enforcement agencies. After introducing police versions of the Charger and Magnum last fall, Chrysler has secured contracts for more than 3,000 vehicles for law enforcement agencies.

Charger and Magnum police car sales still fall well short of the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, the iconic law-enforcement vehicle. Last year, Ford sold more than 47,000 Crown Vic police cars.

Ford officials say the Crown Vic remains the best combination of size, speed and features designed specifically for law-enforcement purposes.

The majority of police cars used by the Honolulu Police Department are Crown Victorias, the department said.

"The Crown Vic stands alone as a police car," said Tony Gratson, Ford's national government sales manager.

But Chrysler says it has serious contenders.

"The Ford is going to be a very strong competitor," said Roxie Thomas, the Chrysler Group's senior manager for government sales. "It's not going away gently, but neither is Dodge."

Law enforcement agencies place specific demands on their cars: They need them to be fast enough to track down suspects, big enough to haul them to jail and durable enough to run for hours on end.

Most police cars are special versions of mainstream vehicles with added equipment, such as beefed-up brakes, heavy-duty alternators and batteries, and high-performance tires.

For more than a decade, Ford's Crown Vic has been the leading choice among law enforcement agencies. It's a roomy full-size sedan with rear-wheel drive, which officers swear by for acceleration and handling.

Older models of the Crown Vic had been criticized by safety advocates for gas tanks that ruptured and caught fire in high-speed rear-end collisions. Ford now has a fire suppression kit in the rear and says the Crown Vic is the safest police car.

Ford introduced the first package specifically for law enforcement agencies with a version of the 1950 Ford Deluxe.

General Motors' and Chrysler's competitors in the segment faltered.

GM dropped the rear-wheel drive Chevy Caprice, including the police version, in the 1990s. It still builds police versions of the Impala, a front-wheel-drive car, and the Tahoe. Both are popular choices, especially in the North where front-wheel drive and four-wheel-drive vehicles provide good traction. GM would not provide sales figures.

Dating to the 1950s, Chrysler also was a major player with cars like the Dodge Diplomat and Plymouth Fury, but it abandoned its rear-wheel-drive platform in the 1980s. The front-wheel-drive Dodge Intrepid never sold in large numbers as a police car.

In 2004, Chrysler came back with a set of rear-wheel-drive cars for the mainstream market. First, it was the 300, a luxury sedan. The Dodge Magnum and Charger followed.