some the police cars here have the marauder/markviii engine, but in the crown vic, not sure of other areas, maybe the suburbanites didnt want to go nuts and get the camaro pursuit cars, lol
personally im a ford man, so id take even a slower crown vic over a caprice anyway, lol, but thats based on alot more preferences than just speed and power
BTW, the marauder engine is the same as the mustang cobra, but with an automatic transmission, kinda the same principle as the LT1 caprice