In Officers only Forum.....

[Mitzi]

I was reading a post of shooters and I REMEMBERE TO COME HERE AND POST ABOUT IT. C'mon, Don and Niteshift, don't I get SOME points for that?
I was reading about shooters "new" cruiser that "only" has 92,000 and a few other things that don't work. I swear, shooter, I'd be so damn pised. Is this car SAFE?
We had an officer here responding to another officers call for help. As he got to the scene, he ripped off his seat belt then applied the brake. (The other officer was fighting the man he had stopped and he wanted to get out as soon as possible to help him). Well, the brakes failed. the car didn't stop and the officer was thrown from his cruiser and killed.
My GOD! They can't even give you guys SAFE cars to drive in the dangerous job you are in???????????????????

[207]

Originally posted by Mitzi:

My GOD! They can't even give you guys SAFE cars to drive in the dangerous job you are in???????????????????

No, it's not in the budget, We just got you new cars 4 years ago, etc. That's what's usually heard.

It's very difficult to aquire new equipment. We just had to send one of our '98's in, I think a connecting rod let go. Our '94 Crown Vic had to have a metal plate welded to the floor to keep the front seat secure.(metal just broke away).
I know the early/mid 90's Chevy Caprices are prone to having the front crossmember develop dangerous cracks in the area where the lower "A" frames bolt to the engine cradle/frame. When a vehicle runs nearly 24/7 by who knows how many different drivers they're going to have problems.

The bottom line is that the administrative personnel don't have to drive 'em so they don't care. When's the last time you saw a Mayor* or senior offical in a 5+ year old vehicle?

* Except for the village of Brewster, NY. The Mayor there doesn't drive at all, he walks.

[Groundhog]

We appreciate the concern Mitzi. My agency deals with this all the time. In a busy precinct, a new Crown Vic is shot in about 18 mos., but we drive them until the wheels fall off. When I was in uniform, I wouldn't even consider going code 3 in some of our heaps unless it was a help call. The problem is that they run 24/7 unless the agency has take-home cars. Even then, they want you live in your jurisdiciton, and alot of folks just don't want to do that in larger departments. In mine, about 95% of the officers live outside the city limits, so very few cars get taken home.

[Mitzi]

We do have take home cars here. I remember just reading hee they spent ONE MILLION dollars landscaping a sound wall on the Interstate. I wrote the city council after this accident where the police officer died because his brakes failed. I said, "ONE MILLION DOLLARS and are cops ride around, saving peoples lives in cars I wouldn't put my child in!!!!" Evrryone was up in arms when that happened. It was a needless, senseless waste of a wonderful human being. A million dolars....FOR PLANTS.
The waste is amazing and it cause us to lose one of our city's finest.

[shooter1201]

I was forced to 'retrieve' my 'old' unit yesterday, as my 'new' unit had been commandeered by a shift supervisor. It seems his 2001 CV 'blew an engine' 2 days ago(ONLY 35,000 miles on it).

Soooo.....for the next week, at least, I'll be driving my old '94 CV with 103,000 miles on it(I swear, I think the front end is gonna fall out from under it), no PA, no fire extinguisher, no first aid kit, lousy brakes, etc.

I think I'll nickname it 'Puff'.....

[ 06-22-2002: Message edited by: shooter1201 ]

[207]

Originally posted by shooter1201:
my 'new' unit had been commandeered by a shift supervisor. It seems his 2001 CV 'blew an engine' 2 days ago(ONLY 35,000 miles on it).

I'd like to heard the "REAL" story behind that one!! The engine just blew up... sure it did.. you don't happen to have any neighboring depts with Z-28 Camaro's do you??

[shooter1201]

Nope...all the surrounding departments use a combination of CVs and Impalas. This is the 2nd 2001 CV we've had 'blow' an engine in 12 months.

You don't think it could POSSIBLY have something to do with my department NOT having a preventative maintenace program.....do you? Nahhhh.......

[Blonde Heat]

Do all of you who drive the crown vics worry about the gas tank problem? Or are you allowed to request a certain car. I believe here the officers are given cars by drawing the keys from a box so there is no favoritism when the new cars are passed out. Its the luck of the draw where i work.

We seem to have a problem in Az where the gas tank blows in these cars when in a impact collision from the back. Recently another officer was killed.

[Don]

Originally posted by Mitzi:
I was reading a post of shooters and I REMEMBERE TO COME HERE AND POST ABOUT IT. C'mon, Don and Niteshift, don't I get SOME points for that?

Yes Mitzi, you are really an ! It's just that so much of the time you play the part of

If my memory serves me, it was back in the eighties when an RD from San Diego County told me they had just taken his Blazer in to put a new engine in it. I think he said that it had 130,000 on it at the time! Back then, my department tried to swap them out at 60,000. . .

[shooter1201]

Today, the tranny in my '94 CV was acting up so badly, at any moment, I expected to look in the rearview mirror and see it laying in the road....

[universitycop02]

I guess my department is lucky, we get new cars every 65K miles, guess being with a state agency has its advanatages.