OCALA, FL (352today.com) – A wholesome, family-friendly environment, found car enthusiasts in the parking lot in front of the Ocala Police Department on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, for the Seventh Cops and Cars event.
The car show provides the perfect platform for the OPD to come together with the community, said Chief Mike Balken, Ocala Police Department.
“It’s great cars, great people, and let’s face it a great cause,” said Balken. “The Marion County Sexual Assault Center is a great partner for us, that helps our victims become survivors but also helps us make quality cases on defendants that we need to send away for a long time. These are violent criminals that need to go away. The cause is near and dear to our heart, especially this year.”
The car show itself isn’t just about chrome and horsepower. It’s about bringing the community together for good causes and allowing the community to get to know the Ocala Police Department’s personnel on a more personal level, through interaction, said Balken. The event wasn’t held in 2020 because of the pandemic.
“It’s a fun time for [the Ocala Police Department], it’s a fun time for the community, it’s a way to get the kids involved, you see kids coming out and checking out our cars, we’re doing little programs for the kids as well,” said Balken. “This is my favorite tradition that we do here. There’s not a whole lot of expectations. We come together as a community. It’s a great bunch of people for a great cause, and it’s a home run for us.”
After Bill Rosenbaum retired from his job working in the police department, he went to work for a man part-time helping him with cars, and the gentlemen he was working with talked him into purchasing a 1957 Bel Air shell. The gentleman told Rosenbaum he would help him with restoring the vehicle, but lost his business, and Rosenbaum found himself in a situation where he had to figure out how he was going to restore the car on his own.
“With the aid of some friends, we finally got together, it took me 10 years, it was a long process, and my wife was great with everything,” said Rosenbaum, who purchased the vehicle in Maryland. “My kids were around, and they helped a little bit. They would sit in there when there was nothing left but a basket. It was a lot of fun, and it turned out really nice.”
Rosenbaum had a 1957 Chevy for a period of time when he was younger, having paid $35 for it, and would end up selling it for $50, but the car made an indelible impression, and it seemed as if destiny would bring him back to a vehicle that had meant so much.
“It was a California car, and it didn’t have any rust in the floorboards or anything,” said Rosenbaum, who resides in Citrus County, near Crystal River. “We had a really nice time restoring the car, my wife and I enjoyed it, she enjoys it now. The guy had the car in a restoration shop, and all he did was sand the paint off of it. It sat for two years, and it was just surface rust on everything. I had to have everything sandblasted, powder coated and painted. It was a process. We love it.”
The OPD’s Annual Cars and Cops Event provides Rosenbaum with the opportunity to return to the site of his first car show, one where he earned unexpected accolades.
“It was my first time out of the box, and I was thrilled, I said, ‘I don’t care if I get another trophy, it made my day,” said Rosenbaum, whose car won best in show that day. “I was doing the Street Rod Nationals in Tampa, but they don’t do it there anymore, they moved it to Mobile, Ala. I probably go to five or six local shows every year.”
The 1963 Chevrolet Impala has always been Anthony Ryan’s dream car. He purchased his vehicle about a month ago, after finding it under a pole barn near Jacksonville, Fla.
“I was in an accident not too long ago, so I was able to come up with the funds to purchase the vehicle,” said Ryan, who intends to modify the vehicle and has lived in Ocala for the past year. “It’s a 355, 700R transmission. I put my rims on it. The Impala came with stocks. I love it and I enjoy it.”
Paul, who only wished to be identified by his first name, has always had a predilection for cars. His grandparents had a Kaiser, and he thought it was the coolest vehicle on Earth. He found the vehicle in Orlando, and it had been well taken care of.
“I said someday, it only took me about 60 years to get what I wanted,” said Paul. “I love taking it to the shows and telling people about it. You get to interact with nice people and see a lot of nice cars. It’s kind of a rare car. They were built from 1947 to 1955 here in the States, and then they continued to build them in Argentina, South America until about 1962. It was called a Kaiser Carabela back then, down there. They were very popular. I’ve wanted one since I was a kid.”
A brother’s vehicle would inspire a lifelong passion for a Silver Springs resident, Doug Gray, who was 9 years old at the time his sibling went into the service, and shared that when he was a kid he would start the car up, and put it in low gear, and being that his family lived in a rural area, he was able to drive it around a field.
Gray retired about a decade ago and had been living in a small town in West Virginia. He was looking for a project and found a vehicle that evoked powerful memories in a local newspaper: a 1938 Chevrolet Business Coupe, which was similar to the 1937 model that his brother drove in 1952.
“I said, ‘I think I’m going to buy that.’ So, I did,” said Gray.
