Filed under: MPG, Chevrolet, Ford, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, USA
Palm Bay Police Chief bans patrol cars from idling
High fuel prices have surely altered most consumer's driving habits. The gas crunch has gotten bad enough that even police units have found it necessary to change their routines. For instance, in Palm Bay, Florida, Police Chief William Berger has banned officers from allowing their patrol cars to idle. The only circumstances where idling a police vehicle is permissible is when an animal or prisoner is left inside the vehicle. Turning off the vehicle sometimes requires on-board computers to be rebooted and, of course, raises the internal temperature of the vehicle since the air conditioner is no longer running. Other agencies have been forced to park their motorcycle units, which could potentially lead to a lower level of service from the police force. According to spokesman Lt. Andrew Walters of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, "Our motorcycle unit... will stay intact. It's an integral part of our service, as the No. 1 complaint to the sheriff's office is traffic-related." One easy way to reduce fuel consumption is to choose a more efficient vehicle, and that's exactly what some agencies have done. "Our fuel usage is actually less than what it was last year because we changed from Crown Victorias to Chevy Impalas. The Impalas get much better mileage," Cocoa's Acting Police Chief Mark Klayman says. The Impala is a front-wheel-drive unibody design which uses a V6 engine while the Crown Vic is a traditional rear-wheel-drive, body on frame vehicle powered by a V8. Seems like switching to the Impala would be an easy choice as opposed to laying off officers or reducing motorcycle units.
[Source: Florida Today via CarScoop]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin Nugent 7:09PM (5/10/2008)
First off motorcycles are the most fuel efficent out of all the vehicles.If anything they should be parking tehir cars and use more motorcycles. Speaking of fuel efficent cars i think there is a possibility of there being a pruis cop car due to alot of improvments
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Joseph 10:33PM (5/10/2008)
Good.
Here in Miami I saw a police car idling with no passengers inside. Instead, both of the policemen were outside of the car!
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stevefazek 12:58AM (5/11/2008)
For city patrol a prius or escape hybrid costs less then what a fleet impala or crown vic costs, Gets better MPG and doesn't need a second battery or alt added since they could simply tap into the battery for the hybrid system.
Meeter maids need to drive NEVs.
For interceptor vehicles if they ran just a few 330Ds from BMW that would cover everything they need and still get 40 MPG. Plus the 330D is faster in all aspects then a crown vic.
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GenWaylaid 4:18AM (5/11/2008)
If anyone could use a stop/start micro-hybrid, it's police on patrol. They could avoid nearly all idling without worrying about no A/C or rebooting computers or wasting time restarting the vehicle when they get a call.
The ideal police hybrid might use an engine shutoff system plus a battery pack just large enough to keep the accessories running for a couple hours, in order to minimize engine restarts. Using a full-blown hybrid like a Prius probably wouldn't gain them much more fuel savings unless they were doing continuous neighborhood patrols.
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Tim 9:10AM (5/11/2008)
What? Cops will be sitting there in the speed traps with NO air conditioning in Florida? There's going to be a LOT of hot cops out there. Be prepared for unhappy cops with BAD tempers resulting in more police brutality.
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nancy.walter 3:55PM (5/12/2008)
Seems to me they would increase motorcycle patrol to help with fuel comsuption.
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