Producing a buyer's guide in the current market is an interesting exercise. Readers now demand that directory content be up to the minute and easy to use online.

So we knew that in order to make this year's version of the POLICE Buyer's Guide a success we had to do something a little different. After all, not all of today's law enforcement officers consult a printed directory for information when they are doing research or planning to buy something. So as we began production of this year's buyer's guide, we knew that we had to take a different approach to this material.

Like last year's buyer's guide, this year's version is being produced as a separate publication and packaged with our July issue. That means the Buyer's Guide is a bonus issue of POLICE Magazine full of our award-winning editorial content. In this issue, you can read about which agencies are buying the new patrol cars offered by Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ford and what cars they are buying, tips for stretching your budget during these difficult economic times, and our editors' choice of the 12 coolest new law enforcement products.

We are referring to this year's buyer's guide as our "live" buyer's guide. What does that mean? Well, it means that we are moving our print Marketer Guide Section to the Web. Our online Directory at Policemag.com is easy to find on the PoliceMag.com Website, and it allows you to search by name or product category. Each listing that your search returns gives you links to the company's Website and the contact's e-mail.

Going "live" with our buyer's guide also means that we have redesigned our Product Guide Section. Company listings in the PGS now include both the company name and the company Website's URL.

From an editorial standpoint, "going live" means that we surveyed you, our readers, for much of the content for this issue. The result is the three reader polls that we have produced in visual stories in this bonus issue.

It is our hope that you will enjoy this 13th, bonus issue, of POLICE Magazine and find it and our online Directory useful throughout the next 12 months. As always, we thank you for reading POLICE Magazine and PoliceMag.com.