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New cruisers
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Liberty police officers Michael Shuster, left, and Robert Altier have new rides. The township bought two 2014 Ford Explorers, which went on the road Wednesday. The SUVs were bought with confi scated drug money.
By Jeanne Starmack
Liberty
Ahhh, that new-car smell.
Who doesn’t love it? You climb in behind the wheel and fasten your seat belt.
You adjust your rearview mirror and get ready to take that first ride in your new SUV.
You’re not worried about the weather, because you have all-wheel drive, and you’re ready for anything.
You even have a camera that’s ready to record every second you’re on the road.
Your brand-new laptop is at your side.
You glance behind you at your Benelli shotgun and your AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
You’re good to go.
On your way out of the parking lot at the Liberty police station, you drive past your old Crown Victoria.
You’ve got to get used to your new wheels now. Give that a little more time, said Liberty officers Robert Altier and Michael Shuster.
They’ve only been in the SUVs for eight hours, they said Thursday in the parking lot at the station on Church Hill-Hubbard Road.
“I’m still trying to get used to it,” said Shuster.
“It’s definitely different, but I’m a truck guy, so I kind of like it,” said Altier.
The two 2014 Ford Explorers — bought with confiscated drug money — were put into service Wednesday.
They cost $22,396 each, said Police Chief Rich Tisone. After being outfitted with equipment, he said, the total is $60,000 for both.
The Benelli shotgun is expensive at $1,200, he said. The AR-15 set the department back $800.
The SUVs get better gas-mileage than the Crown Vics: 22 mpg to 18 mpg.
Each officer drives his or her own of 16 cars in the township fleet, said Tisone. So Altier and Shuster always will be behind the wheel — they got the SUVs because of their “activity levels,” said Tisone, including a lot of traffic stops where they run the risk of encountering someone with guns and drugs.
If that someone has cash, too, he might be helping to pay for the police department’s next vehicles.
“When we make an arrest, we file for forfeiture, Tisone said. “Once cases are adjudicated, either [Girard Municipal Court] or Trumbull County Common Pleas Court awards us a percentage,” he said.
The last vehicle the department bought was a 2012 Chevrolet Tahoe, which the police dog and handler use.
The rest of the cars in the fleet are 2008 models.
Big advantages are that the SUVs sit up higher and are all-wheel drive, Tisone said.
Off-roading?
“No,” he said. “They better not.”