Watertown looks to expand police fleet

Jul. 26—The Watertown Police Department could be getting a facelift shortly, and city officials say that it cannot come fast enough.

"We need new police cars," Watertown Mayor Mike Jennings said. "I can show you the bills we need to repair them every week."

How best to purchase new vehicles for the police fleet was discussed during last Tuesday evening's regularly-scheduled Watertown City Council meeting.

Watertown is already on a waiting list for a new cruiser, but assistant chief Micheal Henderlight indicated that it could be six months before it is added to the fleet.

During the meeting, the city council voted to put the city on the waiting list with the same company for a second cruiser, whenever it becomes available.

Henderlight mentioned the annual window of opportunity to get on those lists is tight and would need to happen before the month's end, or the city would have to wait until next year.

Henderlight advocated for the purchase of multiple vehicles.

"If we buy a new one, it won't be new for long if it's the only one," Henderlight said. "When you let something run for 24 hours at a time, it wears on it."

Watertown police officer Donna Gray attended the meeting and spoke about the situations that Watertown police officers find themselves in at a time due to the condition of the existing vehicles.

"As officers, we deal with a lot," Gray said. "On Feb. 9, I was shot at during a traffic stop. I was in a four-cylinder Ford. I had no spotlight. I could not catch them."

Sometimes, the dangers aren't as imminent, but the impact could still be deadly.

"Today, we had an officer on routine patrol when a hose went out," Gray said. "At any given moment, we are the only officer on duty. It's an officer-safety issue, as well as a community-safety issue. If we can't get to our citizens as a result of these issues, it's a risk for the safety of the community."

According to Gray, Smith County will purchase two vehicles at a time, then rotate two out on to a reserve status so as not to wear them out in the event a backup vehicle becomes required. Then, when Smith County purchases two more cruisers, those reserve vehicles are sold. Gray recommended that the city explore purchasing those cruisers, which have about 63,000 and 56,000 miles on them and cost between $7,000 and $9,000.

"That is an estimate from my talk with the city manager," Gray said. "One is a 2014 Ford Explorer with 62,951 miles on it, which is almost 100,000 less than some of our vehicles have on them. Even if we couldn't get all new vehicles, if we could get some in better shape than what we are driving with, we should, because we are constantly feeding (the ones we have) back and forth to the shop."

Watertown Vice Mayor Laura Lea Cromer added, "We definitely need the new police vehicles for sure, and I like what Smith County does, rotating them out."

The city has enough cash to purchase the two used cruisers from Smith County.

How best to fund the cruisers was up for debate.

"We could buy them with a capital outlay note and pay it back over three to five years," Jennings said. "You can budget that in the future, because you know what the vehicle expense is going to be. The question next week is not if we are going to do it, but what we are going to do. Will we buy one with cash or finance two?"

The city council voted to move forward with the two Smith County vehicles to serve as a stop-gap solution until the new vehicles could be acquired. Pending a mechanical review of the condition of the vehicles, the city allocated up to $20,000 for the purchase.