The Denver City Council voted Monday to spend more than $1 million on 23 new patrol cars for the Denver Police Department.
A contract for $1.043 million will go to Asbury Automotive Group. The cars are 2024 Dodge Durangos and will come fully outfitted for police use, according to city staff.
Three council members voted against buying the new police cars, including Sarah Parady, Shontel Lewis and Serena Gonzales Guttierez. Parady said during a time of impending budget cuts buying cars should be reconsidered. But the superintendent of the police fleet said 65-70% of their cars have gone beyond their useful lives. The city spends about a $1 million per year repairing the cars, he said. Sometimes they even replace engines and transmissions. Best practices call for replacing cars before they get to that point, the superintendent said. Some cars have as many as 200,000 miles on them, he said. “We don’t want wheels falling off the police car at 75 mph going to a call.”
Shortage of cars delays response timesa
Police Chief Ron Thomas said sometimes there aren’t enough cars for every officer on patrol. In those instances, officers double up, which Thomas said lowers response times. He said two more contracts will come before the council for additional police cars. He said they had to put three contracts out for bid to meet their needs because availability of cars is limited. He said putting off buying the cars Monday would result in the fleet aging further, possibly affecting police response times. “The purchases have real implications for services on the street.”
The fleet superintendent said the city has a staff of mechanics and a body shop for the police vehicles. The service garage is full staffed but for two years ran short-handed, the superintendent said.