01-04-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

• Current mechanical condition and anticipated repairs • Previous accidents or repetitious failures • Trade-in or resale value Maximum planned use: Patrol officers are scheduled on a 9.5 hour day, 6 day on 4 day off rotation. This schedule allows for overlap of peak hours while maintaining a 2 officer minimum at all times. There are three overlap periods a day. If we are scheduled at minimums, we need 4 cars during the overlap period. If we are staffed above minimums, we could need as many as 6 cars during shift overlap. Officers are assigned traffic detail at Eaglebrook Church (EBC) every Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday service occurs during shift overlap, bringing the number of squads needed between 6 and 8. In addition to patrol and Eaglebrook, Officers also work special grant funded traffic details. In the first 11 months of 2015, there were 95 grant funded details. All of them occurring during a shift overlap time. Special details bring the needed number of assigned cars to between 8-10. We must also take squad issues and repairs into account. During 2015, squad 387 was out of service for over a month as we waited for a replacement part, 383 was down for three weeks with a power supply issue, and 383 was out of service for over 5 months while a battery issue was investigated. It is not uncommon to have two or three squads out of service at any given time. Another issue unique to the patrol squads is the compatibility between the squad camera and the assigned squad computer. With the current video hardware, you cannot take the tablet computer from one squad and put it into another. This results in a squad cars being out of service each time a squad computer is out of service. Miles per year/maintenance: The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) uses maintenance costs and mileage to determine the appropriate number of squad cars in a fleet. They suggest enough squads in a fleet to keep yearly mileage totals below 20,000 miles per vehicle. Their research has shown that, “after the threshold of 20,000 miles driven per vehicle, other maintenance costs per vehicle become much larger” (ICMA journal June 21, 2012). Squads are assigned and rotated based on mileage in an attempt to keep each below 20,000 miles per year. In 2013, we averaged 18,527 miles on each patrol vehicle. In 2014, we averaged 19,045 mille per vehicle. To minimize costs, we use many parts from the vehicles that we are retiring from service and put them in new squads. This is a time intensive process and both vehicles are out of service until the new squad is outfitted. This creates the false impression of an increase in vehicles. If we are retiring three cars, and outfitting three new cars, it appears on paper as if we have six cars, when really none of them are suitable for patrol. Based on current community needs, the current state of the police division vehicles, and industry best practices standards; staff is recommending the purchase of four vehicles for