A special Pea Ridge City Council Committee of the Whole meeting gave council members and city staff the opportunity to discuss the request for additional patrol cars. The meeting was held at 3 p.m. Thursday, May 25.
Police Chief Ryan Walker said he would like to purchase six squad cars this year, rather than the two that are in the budget at approximately $40,000 each. In order to do this without impacting the budget, he said, he would like to purchase one car with cash and take out a loan for $200,000, then use the budget funds for the second car to make loan payments.
By doing this, he said, the department can replace the least dependable vehicles in its fleet with minimal burden on taxpayers. The department can continue making payments on the loan while buying one additional vehicle annually and make payments with funds that would have bought additional vehicles.
At this point, he said, the department has six vehicles with 94,000 to 114,000 miles. By the end of the year, he said, the department will have eight vehicles with more than 80,000 miles on the odometer.
Recently, the department took three vehicles in for three mechanics to take a look at, and two of those three said the cars in question should not be on the road, Walker said. He did not take in the highest-mileage cars in the fleet, he said, because he wanted a more fair comparison.
"These cars are just worn out," Walker said.
It isn't the result of a lack of maintenance, he said.
Because squad cars spend more time idling, he said, their life is more strenuous than a car used by civilians. This means less airflow to cool the engine, he said, which cooks wiring and everything else under the hood, plus a lot of time spent at rev ranges that aren't ideal for an engine. It isn't unreasonable, he said, to consider a police car's miles to be twice what the odometer shows.
"Police cars are the exact opposite of highway miles," he said.
His department has had delayed responses because of issues like radiators blowing and electronic problems, he said.
It's hard to reduce those idle times, he said, because the officers need to leave their engines on to power emergency lights during stops, or to ensure the officer can leave immediately when they need to. If the car is parked and someone is in the back, he said, the engine has to stay on to run the air conditioner.
Council member Bob Cottingham said he was concerned about having two of these newer vehicles assigned to supervisors.
"It just makes sense to me that you should rotate the lower mileage, newer vehicles out to those on patrol," he said.
Walker said that, while the positions are considered supervisory, they still run calls. Moreover, he said, assigning different vehicles to different positions, which tend to rack up a different number of miles, can help prolong the fleet's life.
"They're out there. They're answering calls. They're in a full uniform," Walker said. "We are very mindful of not just having the best for us."
Cottingham said that, while he understands the logic, it may be difficult to convince the city to spend money it does not yet have.
"It's going to be a hard sell to tell the public we're going to try to purchase six vehicles in one year," he said.
Additionally, he said, it may prove difficult to keep the department under budget.
Walker said that, with this plan, the department should stay within budget, but there are always possibilities that could change that.
"I can't predict the next five years," he said. "If we hire multiple guys or gals, if we have a car that gets wrecked, I can't predict that."
General News on 05/31/2017