Lacking new officers, Cd'A PD motors on

COEUR d’ALENE — Using money from unfilled police officer positions, the Coeur d’Alene Police Department plans to add a squad car and three unmarked cars to its patrol and detective divisions as part of an earlier- than planned upgrade.

Chief Lee White told the city’s general service committee his department has the money — it was set aside in the latest budget cycle to hire officers, but went unused — to purchase a $36,000 patrol car from a local dealer, as well as three unmarked cars that go for about $30,000 each.

The purchase would bolster an 18-patrol car fleet that has several aged and high-mileage street cruisers, which were supposed to be replaced next year.

“Three unmarked vehicles in our fleet have very high mileage and are in varying states of disrepair and mechanical failure,” White told the committee. “The city shop has told us that based on the condition of these vehicles, repairing them is not in the best interest of the city.”

The department plans to sell those four cars and buy a 2017 Ford Police SUV similar to other patrol vehicles already in use, he said. It found an unpurchased police car at Lake City Ford that meets its requirements, White said. The new car has some of the equipment to make it street ready, and additional equipment will come from decommissioned patrol cars.

The department had planned to buy cars during the 2018 budget cycle, and had earmarked funding for the replacement of the four cars. The surplus funding though will allow CPD to replace cars earlier, while scratching the budget request for next fiscal year.

“It was a timing issue,” City Council member Kiki Miller said.

The department’s oldest vehicle is a 2011 Chevrolet Impala with 77,500 miles, Detective Jared Reneau said.

“We have four vehicles with over 140,000 miles,” Reneau said.

If they are not sold as surplus vehicles, old patrol vehicles are used by other divisions of the department — becoming detective cars or used by citizen patrol volunteers.

“Most of the investigative vehicles have near or over 100,000 miles,” Reneau said. “The city shop works hard to maintain all of our vehicles and they do a good job keeping us on the road — even when our older vehicles have significant mechanical problems.”

Newly purchased patrol cars must be equipped with lights, a siren, radios as well as prison transport equipment, which includes a new rear seat, seat belts, and a safety partition between the front and rear passenger areas, Reneau said.

In addition, patrol vehicles are required to have evidence-collecting equipment. The add-ons are installed by an out-of-state vendor, and a local vendor adds the decals.

By having a fleet program as opposed to take-home cars, the department’s squad cars can be on the road around the clock, which adds miles and maintenance, City Administrator Jim Hammond said.

Despite the notion that officers take better care of vehicles if they have a sense of ownership, a take-home car program is much more expensive because it requires more cars, Hammond said.

“We don’t have that kind of money or maintenance staff,” he said.

In a fleet program, several officers are assigned to a vehicle and assignments change as shifts rotate, Reneau said.

“Officers with the most seniority get to drive the newest vehicles,” he said.