Assigned Cruisers

[tms1989]

Hello all!

Currently my department uses the pool car concept where basically every night you may have a different car. I'm planning on trying to see if we can switch it over so that each officer will be assigned a cruiser, to be shared with two other officers on the other shifts. Most of the departments around us already have this system and I plan on talking to them but I also wanted to post here and see if anyone has any hard numbers, studies, etc. that I could bring to the Chief to show him the benefits of doing this.

I tried searching this topic but could only find articles about take homes or assigning a single officer to a car. Like I said earlier we would have 3 officers on seperate shifts sharing the same car.

If anyone has experience with this I would really appreciate your feedback!

Thanks!

[Yankee_1]

nope we all share the cars most are driven 24 hrs a day. certain cars are supposed to be driven by the main sectors but some guys like certain cars.

[careerchange#2]

We assign individual take-home cars, however most new guys won't see one for over a year. Unofficially the guys using pool cars work it out among themselves to ensure they get a good car.

[So Fla Cop]

We get brand new cars every year for everyone. It is covered under Obamacare, like everything else.

[Rush817]

Patrol has a shift bid twice a year, which entails bidding shift, vehicle and patrol district. We have 4 shifts and the vehicles are assigned to three of the four shift to give the vehicle a break (In Theory). Officers have to complete an inspection sheet at the beginning of each shift, which generally takes care of most issues.

[yngcp89]

We have beat cars. There are a couple of problems that we have with the system. For one, about a third of our fleet is down at any given time for repairs, and we don't have enough vehicles to make up the difference. The other issue is, if you have someone who works overtime for whatever reason, their car gets taken out of the rotation, which can definitely cause problems if you don't have enough cars to make up the difference. We have had incidents of people standing around for an extended period of time waiting for "their" car to come in. It would be a great idea if you were starting out with a new or adequately large fleet.

[kermit315]

Our reserves have pool cars, and we have a small pool of spares in various states of repair, but everybody else is assigned a car of there own.

It would seem that your best bet would be to talk to the other agencies around you that are already doing it, as you already said.

[sunnymw]

We get brand new cars every year for everyone. It is covered under Obamacare, like everything else.

That's only for people who are NOT working... Duh...

[sunnymw]

OP, good luck with your mission. At our PD we rotate so everyone has a turn running tag reader. Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy running it every day and the other guy would be happy doing proactive stuff in the bad neighborhoods all day, that's each of our styles, but the change of scenery is nice at times.

If all the cars were equipped the same we would probably still rotate because that way one person doesn't always get stiffed with the "old" car.

[usetobe]

In Florida most everyone I can think of gets a take home car that is only assigned to them. There may be some dept's that rotate cars but I never worked at one or can think of one that still rotates cars.

The theory is that you will take care of it and keep it clean. Also driving back and forth to work shows more presence. The neighbors all love having a marked car parked in their neighborhood also. Many apartment complex's give LE a price break if they have a marked car parked in the complex. Another reason is you can log on the computer and go right to work. No need for a daily roll call. They can have roll call every few days and send out Bolo's ETC. on your computer.

There is one more benefit in that the agency does not have to have a large parking lot to store the cars not in use. If my agency parked the cars there would be a major space issue.

[manno332]

I work for an investigative agency in which we are all issued take home unmarked vehicles.

The SO I use to work for assigned take home cars to every Deputy. Like mentioned earlier, the presence and ability for one person to be responsible for the vehicle is a plus.

One of the agencies in my area assigns two officers to a car. The vehicle is only ran one shift a day and is given to the other guy during his tour of duty. So the two officers work opposite schedules, which allows them to assign one car to two officers. Does that make sense?

[Chomp]

We have a mix; most of our units are share cars, shared between two guys. Each AC also has several pool cars to be used when our shares are out for service, or for OT.

The share cars are generally kept in pretty good shape. The pool cars get **** on.

[stormz5192]

Many of our cars are single assigned, but the rest are assigned by the patrol commander. At most, 2 officers assigned to a car and they're on opposite platoons.

[JonathanE]

Way back when I was in patrol we had what you have which is a fleet and every man and woman for themselves. What happened with us is that certain officers tended to drift towards certain cars and unofficially the cars were assigned out. There were people who didn't care and drove whatever was left over. I'm surprised that hasn't happened at your department.

[Silentfaith]

In Florida most everyone I can think of gets a take home car that is only assigned to them. There may be some dept's that rotate cars but I never worked at one or can think of one that still rotates cars.

The theory is that you will take care of it and keep it clean. Also driving back and forth to work shows more presence. The neighbors all love having a marked car parked in their neighborhood also. Many apartment complex's give LE a price break if they have a marked car parked in the complex. Another reason is you can log on the computer and go right to work. No need for a daily roll call. They can have roll call every few days and send out Bolo's ETC. on your computer.

There is one more benefit in that the agency does not have to have a large parking lot to store the cars not in use. If my agency parked the cars there would be a major space issue.

My SO issues us take home cars the last week of FTO, and yes most agencies in Florida issue their deputies/officers take home cars. Some agencies give them to you at the end of FTO, others make you wait a year, for the most part people I know who work for other agencies throughout Florida all have take home cars. I couldn't imagine having to share a car with several other guys.