YPD fleet sees setbacks

Savings from eliminating some take-home cars will help pay for new cars, the mayor said.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — With so many aging marked police cars off the road for repairs, operations are being affected, according to the Youngstown Police Department’s fleet manager.

“The state of the marked fleet has reached crisis state,” Detective William Blanchard, fiscal officer/fleet manager, said Fridayin an e-mail to the finance department and mayor’s chief of staff. “Due to the necessities of running regular patrols along with enhanced suppression patrols paid by grants, the fleet as it now stands cannot meet operational needs.”

Blanchard, on behalf of Police Chief Jimmy Hughes, has requested $150,000 from the finance department to purchase five new cruisers. The cost of $30,000 each includes outfitting the cars with standard police equipment including computers, radios, lights bars, cages, control panels and shotgun locks.

He said the chief also wants to buy five used Ohio State Highway Patrol vehicles and outfit them to provide a short-term bolster to the fleet. No per-car cost was noted.

Blanchard and the chief said they believe the money for the used cars can be obtained from grants.

On Wednesday, Hughes acknowledged that no new cars have been purchased since 2006, but he denied operations are in a crisis state.

The chief said he didn’t know how many cruisers are currently out of service, adding that the mechanics told him they just put two back on the road.

“They repair them and get them back in service,” he said. “It’s a regular routine.”

The chief said his department has a number of grants — Weed and Seed, gang and crime suppression, for example — that cover the cost of putting extra officers on the streets. The unexpected extra patrols put an increased demand on the fleet, he said, adding there are times the car situation means the department is unable to staff the grant-funded patrols.

“We kind of doubled, tripled, quadrupled the work force of the cars that we have that would have had normal use. Now, they have extra-normal use,” Hughes said of the added patrols. “We are able to put cruisers on the road on every shift and still make these details in some fashion, some of them reduced. I don’t feel it’s gone to a critical state.”

Hughes said he has asked that those who schedule the grant-funded patrols make sure they don’t schedule two or three details to be out at the same time.

“I coupled the guys up on the regular beats ... but that’s not just due to the shortage of cars. I’ve had two-man cars because of the fuel situation,” Hughes said.

The 10 cars the city purchased two years ago were Chevrolet Impalas. The bulk of the marked cruisers are Ford Crown Victorias. Many of the unmarked cars are Ford Tauruses.

Some officers have complained about the Impalas’ smaller size. Once a computer is installed, little room is left for a front-seat passenger. Also, after the addition of the cage in the back seat, there are tight quarters for prisoners being transported to jail.

Blanchard, in a series of e-mails to the chief, finance department and mayor’s office that began in late March detailing problems with the fleet, pointed out in May that eight of the 10 Impalas have had their transmissions rebuilt.

Last week, in an e-mail to the chief, Blanchard said the garage repair budget had been spent within the first six months — with more than $26,000 on transmission repairs alone. He called the situation unprecedented in his 11 years as fleet manager. The total budget spent was not immediately available.

“I again attribute the number of repairs to the age and mileage of the fleet, and the 2006 Chevrolet Impalas which we purchased, that have experienced more maintenance issues [than] the Ford Crown Victorias,” Blanchard wrote.

Mayor Jay Williams said the Impalas pose unique challenges. He wants to be in the position to support General Motors and purchase Chevrolets whenever possible but also wants best-use cars for frontline cruisers.

“I’m not ruling out Fords, but that’s not to say we won’t have Impalas as cruisers. I want to support GM and Lordstown, even though the Impalas aren’t built there,” he said. “It’s not impossible to achieve both goals — the right vehicle for the right use.”

The city, he pointed out, has a lot of departments, not just police, that require vehicles.

Williams said an appropriation will be put in next year’s budget to buy new police cars.

The mayor also said the number of unmarked take-home cars will be scaled back. Over the years, the practice expanded to the point of almost being a perk, he added.

A city ordinance that lists who should have take-home cars is being evaluated with revision in mind, including which cars will be allowed to travel to officers’ homes outside the city, the mayor said.

He anticipates that some of the take-home cars will be auctioned off and the others designated as pool cars, to be parked and used as needed by on-duty officers. He expects the number of take-home cars to be reduced within two to three months.

The savings in maintenance, insurance, fuel and so forth will be used, along with next year’s appropriation, to buy new cars, Williams said.