Texas is the biggest state in the lower 48. From its chicken-fried steaks to its Buc-ee's travel centers, the Lone Star State takes advantage of all that space by making everything bigger than you might expect. Now, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is getting in on the act: The DPS’s North Texas Region recently announced on Facebook that a Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat will be joining its fleet. Because in Texas, a 710-horsepower police SUV is completely reasonable.
The Texas DPS didn't go into much detail about how the Durango SRT Hellcat would be deployed. It simply said: "All that horsepower. One mission: Public Safety." That mission apparently calls for an SUV with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 under the hood. With a top speed of 180 miles per hour, the Durango SRT Hellcat can cover a lot of ground quickly, and in an emergency, every second counts.
Of course, top speed is only one part of the equation. If the Texas DPS ever finds itself considering a PIT maneuver on a Texas-sized pickup truck, having roughly 5600 pounds of SUV at its disposal might be reassuring. Whether putting an $80,000 Hellcat through that kind of punishment is a good idea is another question entirely.
There is one thing the Texas DPS will need to keep in mind if it intends to use the Durango SRT Hellcat in highway pursuits: range. The EPA rates the supercharged SUV at just 14 miles per gallon combined, and that figure is likely to be far lower when the V-8 is in maximum attack mode. (Our testing saw just 10.7 mpg in the significantly less powerful 2026 Durango R/T 392, for reference.)
Whether this Durango will spend its days chasing bad guys or simply making appearances at community events remains to be seen. (Road & Track has reached out to the Texas DPS for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.) But no matter how it is used, it’s certainly going to attract plenty of attention. And while a Hellcat might seem excessive for a police vehicle ... this is Texas we're talking about.
