why do the police here have such fancy rides?

[bootsriley]

lift kits, expensive aftermarket rims, tinted windshields, etc.

this stuff is not cheap and adds up quickly, couldnt this money be used better elsewhere? just seems very unnecessary to me.

[Rob Tucker]

A lot of police officers use private vehicles for police work. They get an allowance from the county for that purpose as long as the vehicles meet minimum standards.

[Norm]

The county should buy certifed Police Cars that would transport arested People . Now would you want to put a drunk in a Normal car or a violent person ? ,Why are we sending 2 or 3 cars to a call that can not place the arrested person in their car?

[jrw]

If the police are to use thier own cars they need to be situp to haul prisoners.When they arrest someone to haul they have to call for a blue and white which is a regular police car.This takes another police who has to park there car take the blue and white to where every they need to go.Taking another policeperson off the road to drive for how long?So if there is 2 or 3 police waiting for the blue and white to show up we have 2to 3 police tied up and off the road for how long.

jrw

[4antares]

They have them because we pay for them. Since the county has determined that it is cheaper to subsidize police using private vehicles than to buy/operate/maintain a county fleet the police get a very generous subsidy of our tax dollars to buy and use their own rigs, most of which are much nicer than the tax paying citizens can afford. On the subject of tax dollars wasted by the police, what is up with the police being used as flaggers on construction jobs? Everywhere else I have ever lived uses guys who have some flagger training and work for much lower wages than police officers. I'm relatively certain this is union related but it does seem that the police could be utilized to be doing actual police work like catching criminals.

life is short. enjoy it

[2liveque]

It may not be shared so openly, but the whole "car allowance" is a union-negotiated perk. In addition, hey receive gas, oil, and other maintenance for their vehicles. Mind you, they are also covered by the county for insurance. I'm not complaining. Our cops here have to deal with a lot of things people are not aware of. Lot of them are honest people who work very hard. So if one of the perks of the job is a nice car with aftermarket rims, then so be it.

[ourdoc]

First, they don't get rich off of it. Yes they get oil and gas that has to match up with their daily mileage which is recorded at the beginning and end of each shift, they do NOT get gas and oil for their personal use. It was determined to start a fleet of police cars instead of subsidizing would cost MILLIONS of dollars, plus the employees to maintain them all. 90% of arrested people are transported in their personal car, its the 10% that even you would not pick up that they call for the Blue and White, which btw is often being used by an officer that either does not have a vehicle yet, or theirs is in the shop, so it does not usually take another officer off of the street.

They also run up huge amounts of mileage, the vehicles have to be specific and the highest rated engine for that vehicle and meet transportation of prisoner requirements. Many of these things are not available in a cheaper car, so they have to buy an approved vehicle which is then torn apart to put in all the electronics for the radio and lights. Would you like having your brand new car torn up with holes drilled all over for work, to haul around a drunk driver or someone who was to dirty to take a bath or use a toilet? Its a trade off that saves the county taxpayers a lot of money, not really a perk in the end.

As far as police being used on road construction, they are on off duty hours (and many are voluntary reserve officers or retired reserve officers that are required to do so many non paid reserve hours of police work to qualify for this), and being paid as a choice between them or security guards specifically trained for traffic control by the contractor. Its often cheaper for the contractor to hire off duty police, and never takes a single officer off of the streets. In fact, if there is no off duty officer available, the contractor is forced to use security, which puts them at higher liability.

Keep in mind, the salary for officers in the mainland is far higher in many places than it is in Hawaii. That is the reason so many police agencies nation wide come to Hawaii to try to hire away officers. Here they are trained to take a case from beginning to end including the investigation, CSI work etc., not the mainland, they just call the detectives and crime scene units, even on a simple burglary.

[csgray]

It was recently proposed to go to a publicly owned fleet of vehicles, the local police were overwhelmingly against it and the union fought tooth and nail against that proposal. As I recall, a compromise of a gradual switch over to more if not all publicly owned vehicles was worked out. If it didn't benefit the officers enough to make it worth it for their "brand new vehicle" to be retro-fitted they wouldn't have fought it. When I got a speeding ticket the officer was driving a very low slung bright red muscle car, when I asked him how he answered calls in places like the back of Hawaiian Acres and Orchidland he responded that he did everything he could to avoid those calls.

Carol

[oink]

Another one of those topics that should be made into a sticky that automatically pops up about once a year.

Yes, a Dept. owned vehicle fleet would cost the taxpayers a lot more money. Yes, they should still do it. Personally there is no way I would want my family riding in a car I hauled scumbags in. There were days I sprayed the inside of my car down with bleach and bagged my clothes at the front door and sprayed my shoes with bleach. I do believe in a take home car assigned to each officer to be used only for work related purposes. The cars last longer that way and you get about another half hour of patrol time per day per officer over a hot seat arrangement.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ourdoc

1) Would you like having your brand new car torn up with holes drilled all over for work?

2) To haul around a drunk driver or someone who was to dirty to take a bath or use a toilet?

---

1) You bet. I get a free car, plus maintenance, plus extra? Sign me up. I can't remember what the monthly allowance was, but it's far more than a monthly car payment. Drill away.
2) Probably doesn't happen often, and when it does, somebody else cleans it up. If it was a problem, the officers would be begging for county vehicles.

Subsidized cars are a really good deal for the police officers, not the taxpayer.