City adds 3 new cars to IPD fleet
Published 12:00 am Monday, August 7, 2000
Ironton Police Department added three new patrol cars to its fleet last week to increase safety for officers and citizens, officials said.
Monday, August 07, 2000
Ironton Police Department added three new patrol cars to its fleet last week to increase safety for officers and citizens, officials said.
The city recently entered a purchase agreement through a state bidding program that has provided the department with three 2000 model Chevrolet Impalas, replacing three old cruisers, Mayor Bob Cleary said.
"We bought the cars through a state co-op program that has allowed us to purchase them at a low cost," Cleary said. "Through this program, we were able to purchase three cars totally equipped for $25,000 each and keep the dollars local. We were able to buy these high-performance cars from Higgins Chevrolet at a reasonably low cost and finance them over a five-year period."
The new Impalas replace three of the six 1993 model Chevrolet Caprices and provide patrol officers with safer law-enforcing features, police said.
With radar antennas in both the front and back glass windows, officers can enforce more strict and accurate speed limit guidelines throughout the city, Capt. Bill Garland said.
"The radar systems in these cars are much better than what they were in the old cruisers," Garland said. "We didn’t have stationary capabilities in the old cars. Now, we can actually shoot radar both when we’re moving and when we’re sitting still. We are capable of using the radar on cars approaching us from behind – which is much better for the situation we have with all the one-way streets."
Other features of the new police cars include strobe lights in the headlights, taillights and bar lights that provide safer work conditions for officers.
"On the old cars, the light bars across the top were bad for fading and people just couldn’t see those lights very well," Garland said. "The lights on the new cars are real bright. They definitely get people’s attention. These cars have a much better safety system."
In addition to the better lighting systems, the new patrol cars are front-wheel drive and provide officers with a smaller turning radius, Garland added.
"Other departments tell us these cars hold up real well," he said. "The turning radius on these cars is a lot smaller – which allows us to swing around much quicker than we could before and travel in the opposite direction."
The city plans to repaint the remaining three 1993 model cars and add the new decals to make for a more unified fleet, Cleary said.
"According to several studies we examined, the Impalas have a better performance than any other car we looked at," Cleary said. "We feel that it’s real nice that the residents can see the city progress and still afford it in the budget. We’ve been planning to buy these cars for several years now and we’re real excited about finally getting them. Hopefully, we can buy three more cars in five years through the same program."