City Police drop Ford, switch to Dodge Chargers

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City Police drop Ford, switch to Dodge Chargers



Friday, October 30, 2009

Sault Ste. Marie Police Service is planning to replace the majority of its current fleet of leased Ford police cruisers next year with specialized Dodge Chargers.

The local police services board decided on the move yesterday after learning the switch to Dodge will save nearly half a million dollars over a four-year period.

"It's the best business case," says Police Chief Bob Davies. "But we don't have the dollars in our budget so I'll be going to the City."

If the City agrees to alter the police service's budget to accommodate the move from leased vehicles to purchased ones, most of the current police cruisers will be replaced with special Dodge Chargers by summer 2010.

Police service will be purchasing their new cruisers from the Police Cooperative Purchasing Group.

The Chargers will cost about $6,500 less than it would have cost to buy Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors like the ones the force is currently leasing.

The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service now pays $1,623 a month to lease each of its Crown Victorias and, up until this year, it has leased them for two, two-year lease terms.

At the end of the first two-year term, the leasing company would take the car back, pull out the specialized emergency equipment and put it in a new car for police use.

The two-year-old, stripped Crown Victorias were then sold by the leasing company.

The Chargers, with a V6 high-output engine, are about seven percent more fuel efficient than the Crown Victorias. which use V8 hemi engines, said Constable Steve Miron in a report to the board.

Miron made several cost-saving suggestions in addition to his recommendation to change vehicles and to buy instead of lease.

He recommended the next fleet of vehicles be bought and used as front-line cruisers for two years up to a maximum of 150,000 kilometres.

Those vehicles with lowest milage would then be redeployed to other police units such as community relations, high school liaison and spare parts for patrol, Miron recommended.

He suggested that only the best vehicles be reconditioned for re-deployment and that they be removed from the fleet before they log 180,000 kilometres on their odometers.

Miron also recommended purchasing LED technology for emergency lighting because it draws less power from the vehicle electronics, is easier to maintain and can be used for multiple cycles before needing replacement.

Based on Miron's recommendations, Chief Davies will be seeking funds to buy out the lease agreements on two Crown Victorias in May 2010 at a total cost of $14,000 including repairs and a mechanical on each vehicle.

These would be used as spares in the case of vehicle shortages.

He will also be seeking 10 new Chargers for patrol.

Four of these would function as division cars, three would be radar cars, one would be a ghost car, one would be a tactical unit car and one would be for the swing shift.

The plan is to replace the patrol supervisor vehicle with a purchased 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe two-wheel-drive vehicle worth $47,000 with specialized emergency equipment installed.

The current supervisor vehicle is near its end of useful life and is due to be replaced in November, said Miron.

Miron recommended the currently leased traffic vehicle, a Ford Expedition, be purchased at the end of its lease in May 2010.

He said that vehicle could reasonably continue in operation for another three years and would end up costing $275 a month over the life of the vehicle if it's purchased outright.

One of the reasons that local police have not looked previously at purchasing vehicles is the rather dismal return they've gotten when disposing of police cruisers that have outlived their usefulness.

Miron suggested that Sault police vehicles be shipped to auction in Southern Ontario because, even after shipping, auction fees, cleaning and representation costs, the profit from the sale would be higher than it has been for auctions in the Sault.

"The results of our auctions have been marginal at best, due in part to the limited audience at our auctions," Miron said. "Other services are sending their vehicles to local auction houses in the Southern Ontario area."

Miron consulted Landon Odom of Maple Leaf Motors, who said he believed a three- or four-year-old vehicle could go for $1,000 to $3,500 at auction if properly cleaned.

Currently Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services mechanics maintain the Sault police vehicles as well.

They will continue to do so if the new cruisers are purchased.

Miron said this arrangement was struck during the last lease because it allowed for frequent inspections and pre-order of parts, thus saving cruiser downtime.

The final consideration in Miron's report was the fact that Ford is phasing out production of its Crown Victoria in 2010.

It will likely be replaced with the Ford Taurus, a significantly smaller vehicle.

This means the specialized emergency equipment made for the Crown Victorias would have to be replaced or re-engineered to fit the Taurus.

The Charger is also smaller than the Crown Victoria, but not so much as to necessitate major changes to equipment or its location in the vehicle.

With one exception.

The expensive mobile data terminals presently on the dashboards of the Crown Victorias would be mounted more safely and securely in the trunks.

Smaller, less expensive monitors and modular keyboards to use with the terminals would be mounted on the dashboards instead.

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City Police drop Ford, switch to Dodge Chargers