TOPEKA, Kan. — During this week's marathon budget session, the Topeka City Council came up with $300,000 for new cars for the Topeka police department.
While some Topeka residents may wonder how new cars could be purchased at a time of budget belt-tightening, consider the police department has gone without new cars for several years.
Also consider that police officials say it is costing the city far more money to repair older vehicles than it would cost to buy new ones.
Don't look for the police department to go on a spending spree with the infusion of $300,000. But a few new cars are in the picture, and, according to police officials, not a moment too soon.
"We're behind where we need to be and we're behind where we should be," said Police Chief Ron Miller. "That said, we've had to deal with the financial issues that everyone else has had to deal with over the past couple of years."
Miller said the police department was given $265,000 for car purchases in 2012.
Rather than buying five or six new cars, he said, the department purchased 23 "good quality" used vehicles – 10 from a firm in Colorado and 13 from the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Each car cost approximately $11,000 – about a third of what a new car would run.
Miller said the used-vehicle purchase "helped us considerably," as the department was able to mothball some of its higher-mileage vehicles that were requiring large amounts of money to maintain and repair.
Miller said some cars in the police department are 16 years old, with more than 200,000 miles on their odometers. Ideally, he said, he would like to retire cars at no more than 100,000 miles.
As a contrast, Miller said, the Kansas Highway Patrol retires its cars at around 49,000 miles.
Miller said the city's fleet services division does a good job of keeping the high-mileage police cars maintained.
Some of the cars may be old, Miller says, but they are safe for the officers to drive.
However, the cost for maintaining and repairing older vehicles is staggering.
Miller said it is possible for the department to spend upwards of $75,000 to repair older vehicles over their lifetime – about three times the cost of a new car.
When the Topeka Police Department starts shopping for new cars in 2013, they won't be able to purchase a tried-and-true model that for years has been the gold standard for law enforcement agencies across the nation.
Ford no longer manufactures its Crown Victoria model, making it necessary to select from such models as the Ford Police Interceptor, the Chevrolet Caprice or the Dodge Charger. The Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle is another possibility.
Some of the newer models are considerably smaller and have far less interior space than the Crown Vics, said police Capt. Brian Desch. As such, the newer cars can be a tight squeeze for larger officers.
Desch said the department has about 32 "front-line" vehicles that are used by supervisors and patrol officers assigned to specific districts in Topeka.
Those cars, he said, are on the street virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"They may get about a half-hour rest between shifts," Desch said. "Otherwise, they're in service."
He said police cars can put on 25,000 to 35,000 miles a year as they cruise Topeka's streets.
The police department has around 90 black-and-white patrol cars that are on the streets.
The department has a total of about 280 vehicles in its fleet, including Bobcat loaders, dump trucks, crime scene vans, sport utility vehicles, undercover cars and unmarked units.
Desch said the department will be looking at a combination of purchasing and leasing police cars in 2013.
Like Miller, Desch sees cost savings as a part of purchasing new cars.
"The longer you put off buying new cars," he said, "the more you end up spending on repairs for old ones."