New Ride for Mobile Police

Описание: MOBILE Ala. (WPMI) The City of Mobile is spending over $3 million to replace old, outdated patrol cars. It's a high price to pay, but the police department says it needs those 100 or so new cars in order to keep officers on the streets.

On Friday we're getting our first look at dozens of new cars. You'll soon see in your neighborhood an aging fleet of squad cars tossed to the side today, making room for a new, improved ride.

"We had cars where officers were driving them and the axles would break. This is obviously an issue of officer safety," Public Information Officer Ashley Rains said.

Most of these older model patrol cars deemed no good and unreliable. The cars have nearly 300,000 miles on them.

"My older vehicle had a lot of miles on it, a lot of high miles on it and a lot of different maintenance issues," Officer Ivan Norfus said.

Officer Norfus says the equipment and computer inside his patrol car wasn't working most days, and that made his job that much harder to do.

"Whenever we're dispatched to calls it comes through on the computer. Without having a computer you don't have access to that information, you always have to call back to dispatch and if you don't write it down it just ties up the radio," Said Officer Norfus "If it's right there in your computer all you have to do is look at your computer and you can always look at that information that they just gave you over the radio," Officer Ivan Norfus said.

Seventy- nine of these new Chevy Caprices will be outfitted with the Mobile Police Department logo and the striping package, which was unveiled last December. The remaining 24 new vehicles will remain unmarked and used for various officers and detectives to drive.

There's a hefty price tag to go along with the new purchases, over $3 million for the new cars and equipment. But, the department says in the long run they'll be saving money and they'll be able to focus their attention on public safety, rather than dealing with constant fleet problems and failures.

When these cars go in for maintenance it's not just belts and tires, we're replacing engines and alternators, things that are very expensive to replace.