CHICKASHA – The City Council authorized Police Chief Goebel Music on Oct. 2 to buy another police patrol vehicle, the second such purchase in six weeks.
The Chickasha Police Department will acquire a 2021 Dodge Durango Pursuit all-wheel-drive vehicle from the Kansas Highway Patrol.
It also will be upfitted with radar speed-detection equipment, emergency lights and siren, two-way communication system, and a $7,275 in-car camera system to “capture evidence used in the prosecution of criminal activity,” the council was informed.
The city will pay $59,050 for the vehicle and the accessories.
The council on Aug. 21 authorized the CPD to spend almost $70,000 to buy a new Dodge Durango Pursuit AWD vehicle, with accessories, for the patrol division.
That vehicle has a 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 engine, 8-speed automatic transmission, heavy-duty engine cooling, ParkSense rear park assist with a rearview backup camera, and ready alert braking with rear load-leveling suspension. It too was “upfitted” with radar speed-detection equipment, emergency lights and siren, two-way communication system, and an in-car camera system.
“A grant in 2021 enabled us to buy five ‘new’ cars from the Kansas Highway Patrol; at least, they were new to us,” Music said. All of the vehicles purchased from the Kansas Highway Patrol have had less than 50,000 miles on the odometer and the KHP is “particular about how they care for their vehicles,” Music said.
“And then I got a sixth car, and then a seventh. This latest one will be our eighth car, new to us, that we have acquired in 18 months,” he told Southwest Ledger on Oct. 3.
“So now I can get rid of three cars that are boat anchors. They’ve served their purpose.”
Most police departments of approximately Chickasha’s size “constitute the majority of the law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma,” Music said.
“We drive a car until the wheels come off.”
That’s not the way to “properly manage the safety of your citizens and officers,” he said. “If you have someone in the back seat of your car, they are your responsibility. You have to make sure they are safe.”
Police vehicles are subjected to “harsher conditions” than a typical civilian’s car is, Music pointed out. Older vehicles also have been driven more miles and have more mechanical issues. “Do I spend $10,000 to fix it, or do I get a newer vehicle” with lower mileage and fewer mechanical issues?
“Say we’re in one of our patrol cars and the drive shaft goes out; there’s an expense we hadn’t planned on. Or an officer gets T-boned at an intersection and his vehicle is out of commission. That’s a lot of time and money. We have one now that hasn’t been repaired for a year; it’s serviceable but…”
Buying a new car will be expensive “if you want one that will allow me to respond to your call and catch that bad guy,” Music said. “We have to have a vehicle capable of doing that.”
An axiom attributed to Benjamin Franklin posits that people who fail to plan are planning to fail. “I’m trying to prepare for the future” by acquiring a fleet of newer cars, Music said.
“We have to spend money on vehicles that will enable us to provide the response that our citizens expect.”