Detroit Chief of Police shares how his ingrained love of muscle cars helps keep the streets safe
Published on Aug 11, 2025 at 5:04 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Aug 07, 2025 at 2:05 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
Former Detroit Chief of Police James Craig is revealing how his lifelong love of muscle cars helped to keep the streets safe.
Craig served as the chief of the Detroit Police Department from 2013 to 2021.
As you might expect for a man born and raised in Detroit, cars have been a big part of his life, particularly muscle cars.
During a Dodge Ride Along interview, Craig revealed that his love of muscle cars actually helped him during his career on the force.
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Former Detroit Chief of Police is lifelong fan of muscle cars
While muscle cars may have a bit of bad-boy reputation and are beloved by gearheads and speed demons across the world, it turns out that even police chiefs can have a soft spot for the iconic motors.
And that’s certainly true of Former Detroit Chief of Police James Craig.
He appeared on Dodge’s Ride Along with Cristy Lee a few years back, where he revealed he owned a 2020 Dodge Challenger 392 Scat Pack.
Prior to becoming a cop, Craig had actually studied automotive technology and planned to become an engineer.
He even got a job working on the assembly line at Chrysler, before moving on and joining the force.
Despite leaving the role, he kept a ‘strong passion’ for muscle cars and said his first car was a Plymouth Fury that his late grandfather left to him.
However, Craig was quick to stress that he’s no racer behind the wheel.
“I am so disciplined, I recognized that I set a tone for the city,” he said.
“It takes a certain amount of skill to handle a car with that kind of power.”
He went on to say that his love of muscle cars has led to an understanding of those who do want to get behind the wheel and put their foot down, but he encourages other muscle car fans to do things properly and ‘learn in a very safe way how to handle a vehicle’.
“Go to a sanctioned drag strip, race the car, enjoy it, the streets are not the place for it,” he added.
Good advice.
One man in California took his love of fast cars a step further
While Craig was keen to encourage folks to get off the roads and on to a drag strip, a man in California took that one step further and bought a patch of land so he could build his very own professional drag racing track.
Racing fanatic Ramon Gonzalez decided to snap up a plot of land in August 2023 and transformed it into a top-notch race track.
He hopes that the drag strip will become a hit with the locals and put his city on the map.
He’s even managed to get the attention of the local mayor who is a big supporter of the track.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
