In January the Board of Alderman approved the Police Department’s request to fund new vehicle purchases. Typically each year, two new police cars are purchased and the two oldest cars in the fleet are retired and sold. Last year (2021), due to the pandemic impacted uncertain budget, only one vehicle was purchased. This year three will be purchased – including two new vehicle types for the city.
In addition to a “standard” Ford Police Interceptor, this year the department will be adding a gas/electric hybrid Police Interceptor and a F-150 Police Responder pickup truck. As normal, three older vehicles will be sold, keeping the fleet size stable.
The hybrid Police Interceptor could become the new “standard” vehicle for the department, but only one was purchased this year. The department will evaluate how well it functions, cost savings realized, long-term capabilities, and resale value. Ford claims that each Police Interceptor hybrid can save nearly 1,300 gallons of fuel and 25,560 lbs. of carbon dioxide output each year. The hybrid model costs about $3,500 more than the standard model, but at $2.75 per gallon of gas, it will pay for itself in the first full year of use.
The F-150 Police Responder pickup truck will give the department much needed capabilities to haul items while still maintaining their ability to stay on patrol and be ready to respond to emergency calls. As you may imagine, our police vehicles already carry lots of emergency supplies and thus have limited cargo space. Relying on available public works vehicles and personnel just doesn’t work well, so this will be a well-used resource by our first responders.
All three vehicles will be purchased via state contract pricing and should be placed into service later this year.