MAYOR'S MESSAGE

Craig A. Stough 5/11/2006

"New Police Cars Going into Service"

Sylvania City Council authorized the purchase of six new marked police patrol cars as part of the 2006 Budget. The new cars are now being delivered and will replace the 2003 Chevrolet Impala patrol cars, each with over 80,000 miles on their odometers.

The new patrol cars were ordered under state term contract purchasing, meaning the State of Ohio has previously received competitive bidding for local governments to purchase vehicles. The total price is $24,169.00 x 6 vehicles = $145,014.00. One of the older cars is being kept by the City for the school resource officer at Southview High School. The other five older cars are being sold to the Toledo Police Department for $2,500.00 each.

Some special new equipment was ordered on the new cars: plastic molded rear prisoner seat which allows for more room in the rear and better security for prisoners, window guards on the rear door windows to prevent prisoner from kicking out the window, and new security screens between the front and rear seats for officer protection.

Police service is very hard on cars. They are driven 25,000 miles or more each year, mostly at low speeds and often idling. The cars get an oil change twice each month, and go through 3 or 4 sets of high speed tires a year. These tires are manufactured to run at higher speeds and use a softer rubber that wears out quicker than regular tires.

The patrol cars are kept equipped with a number of emergency and service supplies that the police officer checks at the start of every shift. These supplies include a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, nylon rope, life jacket, life ring, bunji cord, flares, blanket, traffic cones, latex gloves, animal gloves, traffic vest and more. Patrol cars are also equipped with portable computers connecting the officers with data banks, and allowing the officers to access records and information directly from their vehicles.

The police officers spend many hours in these cars, so they are designed for comfort, safety and reliability. They will be marked with Sylvania Police vehicle identification decals that were designed and selected by the department. It will take about three weeks after delivery to install the decals, light bar, radio and other equipment to all the new cars. Watch for the new patrol cars - hopefully they will be on the road sometime this month.