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Council considers new police cars, take-home vehicles

Posted at 9:30 am November 5, 2012
By John Huotari 5 Comments

Five Oak Ridge police officers who moved into the city this year were motivated to do so at least in part by a program that allows them to take their police cars home.

Now, the Oak Ridge Police Department has five officers who are eligible for assigned vehicles under that program, but there are no vehicles available.

So, the Oak Ridge City Council tonight will consider buying eight patrol vehicles, including several new take-home cars as well as a few replacement vehicles.

The Take Home Vehicle Program started in September 2011. Oak Ridge Police Chief James T. Akagi said it increases officer visibility in the city and the neighborhoods where they live, allows quick response times, improves productivity, and boosts employee pride in department vehicles, resulting in better maintenance.

He said the ORPD fleet includes 43 vehicles. Twenty-one of them are assigned, and they last longer and get more miles, Akagi wrote in an Oct. 26 memo to Oak Ridge City Manager Mark S. Watson. He said the eight new cars, either Ford Interceptors or Dodge Chargers, could cost up to $340,000.

Tonight’s Oak Ridge City Council meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building Courtroom. The agenda is available here.

More information could be added later.

Filed Under: Government, Police and Fire, Top Stories Tagged With: James T. Akagi, Oak Ridge City Council, Oak Ridge Police Department, ORPD, police cars, Take Home Vehicle Program

Comments

  1. Andrew Howe says

    November 5, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    Here’s one of those times where we could opt to balance the budget over getting new toys.

    Obviously, details matter, such as “how many vehicles in the fleet are needing to be retired anyway” and “how many officers with take-home vehicles live outside of Oak Ridge that we might re-allocate to fit our current needs.”

    For those rough on math, the figures stated mean each new vehicle will cost the department about $42K – not cheap, but not as expensive as it could be given the special needs of a police vehicle. And I’m assuming the prices stated INCLUDE all the fabulous cop toys.

    Reply
    • John Huotari says

      November 6, 2012 at 1:29 am

      Here’s more information from Chief Akagi’s memo to City Manager Mark Watson: The ORPD plan calls for replacing vehicles with more than 100,000 miles, and 30 percent of the cars now have more than that.

      The equipment on a patrol vehicle can range from about $13,000 to a little more than $17,000. It’s much lower for an unmarked vehicle.

      Akagi said there are 19 take-home vehicles now, and two of them are taken outside the city by executive staff while the other 17 stay in the city.

      Reply
  2. kay williamson says

    November 5, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    I like the idea, I saw two officers with the car’s on west outer, (one is an ACSO) and the other is pass Illinois and west outer in our neighborhood, and I like knowing they live here and protect our neighborhood too,

    Reply
  3. LEE ROY GILLIAM says

    November 5, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    I want ione of the red fire trucks parked in my front yard to go with my RED FRONT DOOR

    Reply
  4. Jason Allison says

    November 7, 2012 at 6:33 am

    Really, what is the benefit of having take home cars? Yes, I did read the article but I didn’t see the need to spend this kind of money on what on what boils down to a luxury. I do however agree that replacing some of the squads that have reached their end of service life.

    Reply

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