The Little Rock Board of Directors is scheduled to vote next week on a plan to add 26 police vehicles over the next few months, but the police union says the city needs to double that to replace the department's aging fleet.
The roughly $682,000 proposal would be the second update to the city's fleet of 415 law enforcement vehicles since the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police released an audit last year on the Police Department's fleet.
The planned purchases are for 11 Dodge Chargers, seven Ford Interceptor Utility vehicles, five Toyota Camry hybrids and three Ford F-150s.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶u̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶l̶e̶e̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶, City Manager Bruce Moore said.*
They will be in addition to 33 vehicles that the city approved for purchase in October. Most of the 33 went to patrol officers and hit the streets earlier this year.
But the vehicle-replacement pace is out of sync with the needs of the department, said Tommy Hudson, a homicide detective who is the Fraternal Order of Police president. Police vehicles should rotate out of service after 90,000 to 100,000 miles, he said, but many officers are driving cars with two to three times that mileage.
"They've gotten so far behind," he said of the city's vehicle purchases. The pace needs to quicken, he said, or "we're just going to be in the same position we are every year, and we're going to be chasing our tails."
The problem is affecting officers' work in the field, Hudson said.
"We've had detectives go in these cars and be in a hot scene and need to take off and go ... and they have had to leave the car there and jump in another detective's car," he said. "We have literally seen police cars ... with battery packs in the cars to make sure that the car could respond to a scene."
A short-term financing loan would pay for the proposed 26 vehicles, Moore said, and city officials are going to spend the rest of the year working out a long-term program for replacing vehicles.
In the meantime, "I think we're making significant progress getting the older vehicles off the front line," he said, pointing out that the city has replaced enough patrol cars to begin focusing on other vehicles.
Maintenance problems have plagued the department's recently purchased Dodge Chargers, in part because the vehicles ride so close to the ground. The new Chargers are not scheduled for use in pursuits, Moore said, so they should encounter fewer problems.
Hudson, who drives one of the department's hybrid Camrys, said the car is surprisingly well-suited for his role in the homicide unit.
"When you're a policeman, and they say 'Hey, we're going to give you a hybrid, try it,' you're like 'I'm not digging this,'" Hudson said. "And I have to tell you that I was proved wrong."
Metro on 06/15/2016
*CORRECTION: A total of $1 million has been set aside for police vehicle purchases in Little Rock this year and the city board has approved $682,000 worth so far, City Manager Bruce Moore said. This article incorrectly stated that the latest purchases would likely be the only updates to the fleet this year.