By ZACH HARMUTH
Residents of Spring Hill could see a different model of police car around town in coming years.
Police Chief Don Brite presented options at the Board of Mayor and Aldermen work session on Monday night to deal with the discontinuation of the cars his department has used for patrol vehicles.
General Motors, from whom Spring Hill currently contracts to purchase police vehicles, stopped production of the Impala model this year. The SPPD, which used Impalas, decided to switch to purchasing the Caprice in anticipation of the change. However, now the Caprice will no longer be produced by GM.
“I have also learned that after this year, GM will no longer be producing the Caprice and that the only police package vehicle GM has to offer will be the Chevrolet Tahoe, starting next year,” Brite told the board.
BOMA budgeted just shy of $300,000 this year for the purchase and equipping of seven Caprice models this year, but the cars were not purchased.
“We had to wait to order the vehicles because the state contracting price had not been released,” Brite said. The contracting price, which the state sets between GM and police departments, came in for the Caprice in September at $28,013.56 per vehicle. Last year’s state contract price was $25,932.00 per vehicle for the patrol cars.
Brite brought to the BOMA’s attention that one more run of Caprice models is being built in Austraila. But to purchase those will cause a problem.
“If SHPD orders Chevrolet Caprices, we are looking at a time frame of a minimum of six months to one year before we have them in our possession,” he said. “This could lead us into next year’s budget for payment and put us in a situation where we are short on our rotation of vehicles.”
Spring Hill has two options to consider, before it considers voting on the matter in its BOMA meeting on Nov. 21:
- It could approve the purchase of Caprices from Australia, which could take up to a year to possess and an additional two-to-three months to outfit for use.
- It could look at other manufacturer’s police vehicles; this would solve the timeframe problem but hurt the city’s partnership with GM.
In addition to the for-patrol Tahoe, GM is offering only a police sedan going forward, one not built for patrol.
If BOMA decides to look at other manufacturers, it will depend on Brite to create a report of options, and go from there.
In the Spring of 2015, a unanimous vote by BOMA made the choice to switch to the Caprice. A recommendation for approval came from the Budget and Finance Committee. There were more affordable options considered, Alderman Amy Wurth said, but the BFC recommended the Caprice then because it would retain partnership with local GM.
