This Volvo PV56 was a passenger car produced by the company between 1938 and 1945, introduced as an updated and more refined successor to the earlier PV51 and PV52 models. It retained the same basic mechanical layout, but the body was modernised with a smoother, more rounded design influenced by contemporary American styling.
This particular vehicle was modified to become a police vehicle, although the first Volvo car to be used by the police was as early as 1929 with the PV651. There wasn’t a great deal of modification required here, they stuck two red lights on, attached a little police sign (well, “Polis” as they wanted it in Swedish) and that was that, there was no painting of the car required. They did though put a radio in the car, this was revolutionary policing technology for the time.