Police cars - not disclosed in a sale?

[leilanidude]

Wondering if used police vehicles here need to be disclosed as having been used as such? Anywhere else I have lived, police/taxi use had to be disclosed. I wondered because I have never seen a vehicle described as a former police vehicle here.

[lavalava]

Considering that the majority of police vehicles are just souped up regular vehicles I would guess the cops just strip the vehicle of the 'cop stuff' and then sell it as a regular vehicle. Just my guess though.

[pahoated]

Hawaii county police own or lease their cars, with reimbursement/compensation from the county, probably not required to report use as police vehicle. It really saves the county from having to own fleets of vehicles.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[lavalava]

Does it really? Do we have the total per year costs compared? I have never seen another police department do this ever and if it was such a money saver I would imagine that it would be more popular.

[Rob Tucker]

They get a good deal on gas too. I don't know about insurance.

[snorkle]

It doesn't save money. It's a perk to our Department

[bystander]

About ten years ago there was talk about switching to a fleet of marked police cars. I recall the chief at that time was against it. They did studies that concluded a fleet would save money. I don't know what happened but it never happened.

I found this article written back in 2004:
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2004/03...tory9.html

[kalakoa]

Saving money isn't the point -- no need when you can just "adjust" the property tax rate.

[Carey]

Pretty sure there are no REAL savings, but the Dept. THINKS there is, as they are comparing the marked cars with a lot of added safety gear (that many Police Depts. do not haveon their vehicles) with the unmarked privately owned vehicles that are pretty much standard equipment

From a couple of years ago on this thread: http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17077
"Posted - 09/17/2013 : 19:04:56
This is all from a thread from a year ago...but my take is that when we state things like cost, we are not comparing similar vehicle. The MARKED cars Hawaii County chose were some of the most expensive cars available, full of many options most police depts. do not have (but lacking little things like dash cams & computers that many DO have). IF the county required the unmarked/personally owned cars to have all of the equipment they required the MARKED cars, then we would have a FAIR comparison...

from last years thread - http://punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14921 :
"Just for those that want a little background of the marked/unmarked car debate, here are some of the news releases on the police car issues (interesting to note that wikipedia even has a picture of a subsidized 2 door model in their article on HCPD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawai‘i_Cou...Department ):

Starting in '03 switch for visibility of fleet:
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/09...tory7.html

'05 Debate on use of marked or unmarked:
http://www.government-fleet.com/News/Sto...estitial=1

'06 with the proposal to switch:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl...80341.html

County SHOPO docs. with the '10 subsidy of $600/mo for patrol & $562 for detective:
http://records.co.hawaii.hi.us/WebLink/0...Page1.aspx

'11 article of no plans to buy more marked vehicles:
http://hilo.hawaiitribune-herald.com/sec...anned.html

'12 marked cars deemed not cost effective:
http://westhawaiitoday.com/sections/news...chief.html

I am not sure what came of it, but I do remember that some officers wanted to still receive the subsidy even when using the marked cars... cannot find the Trib-Herald artilicle right now... know I almost had kittens about that one!"

[terracore]

There's a 2005 Chevy Malibu with only 5,000 miles on it for auction in Honolulu at gsaauctions.gov 10 years of depreciation but only 6 months worth of wear and tear. Former USDA government vehicle with impeccable maintenance per GSA guidelines. Should be a steal, but I've seen some crazy bidding but also crazy under bidding. I've bought these cars before, I considered bidding on this one and flipping it but I don't have the cash or time. Online auction format is fairly straight forward though not exactly like ebay.