Trumbull County to purchase 13 cruisers

By Ed Runyan

All 41 deputies and supervisors take their cruisers home at night.

WARREN — The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department will replace 13 of its 41 police cruisers with new Fords and Chevrolets at a cost of $263,866.

Trumbull County commissioners approved the purchase of 10 new Ford Crown Victorias costing $20,656 each and three Chevrolet Impalas costing $18,652 each last week. The cars are to arrive in seven to 10 weeks.

The $263,866 will come from county funds, though the additional $6,000 to $7,000 in equipment costs for each car will be paid for with various grants, said Chief Deputy Ernie Cook.

Among the equipment purchases are onboard computers, radios, roll cages and reinforced bumpers.

The new cruisers will replace cars with over 200,000 miles on them, Cook said, adding that these are the first new cruisers the department has purchased in about six years.

“It’s getting cost-prohibitive to fix them, plus the safety issue,” Cook said of some of the older cruisers in the fleet.

The department purchased one used Ohio State Highway Patrol car last year, but the state is using its cars longer now than it used to, making those a less desirable choice than in the past, Cook said.

Used OSHP cars have about 120,000 miles on them when the state sells them, Cook noted.

Every commissioned officer in the sheriff’s department has his or her own cruiser to drive, Cook said. He acknowledged that departmental policy calls for each of the 41 officers and supervisory employees, such as lieutenants and sergeants, to take their vehicles home with them at night.

The policy is meant to improve efficiency by allowing deputies to report to their assigned area from home rather than drive to another location to pick up a cruiser, Cook said. Deputies working court security are included in the policy.

A cruiser is “the office” for many deputies, and giving each deputy his or her own cruiser allows it to be individualized to his or her needs, Cook said.

An officer with his own cruiser is also likely to take better care of it than an officer who shares it with others, Cook said.

“We have stretched the life of cruisers out 10 years, to about 250,000 miles,” Cook said.

runyan@vindy.com