March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Police cruiser policy considered

The Old Town City Council will decide in June whether the city manager, the fire chief and the recreation director will continue to drive new police cruisers or whether the cruisers will be used by the police department.

Last week, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted 3-1 to recommend that the city maintain the present system.

If the City Council agrees, the city manager, the fire chief and the recreation director will continue to drive new cruisers purchased by the city every year. After the cruisers are used for a year and “broken in,” they will be handed over to the police department.

“They (committee members) basically thought the current policy was working well,” said City Manager David Cole.

But Police Chief Donald O’Halloran said there were definite drawbacks to putting the cruisers in “light service” for the first year. O’Halloran said that while town administrators were driving the new cruisers back and forth to work, the warranty was running out.

“When they get here and really start getting used for police work, they are not under warranty,” O’Halloran said in April. “I’m not under the philosophy that you break it in easy and it will last longer. The car is designed as a police package, and it is more appropriate to use it as such when it is brand new.”

Cole said the policy was adopted in 1984. Until then the city purchased new vehicles for administrators. It was decided the city would save between $21,000 and $30,000 a year if the administrators began a rotation schedule with the police department.

At the committee meeting Councilor Clyde Grant suggested that the city retain the policy, but reverse the rotation so that administrators would drive cruisers that had been taken out of police service.

Cole said the concern over the cruisers’ warranty was reasonable. When asked if he would be willing to drive a cruiser that was 2 years old, Cole said, “I don’t think it matters. The issue is cost.”


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