On 3/20/14, the Bates County Sheriff took possession of two new
patrol vehicles and expects to receive another in the next couple of
weeks. The three vehicles are all pickup
trucks. Since 2009, the Sheriff’s Office
has selected Dodge Chargers for patrol vehicles with relatively good
success. Recently the Sheriff’s Office
has experience a few problems with the new style Chargers. The largest significant issue has been
patrolling rural gravel roads and clearance of the patrol car.
“As we are responding to calls for service it’s important that we
are able to reach our destination, we have experienced roads that are not
passable in these patrol vehicles and have to wait until an officer can respond
with a 4x4” says Sheriff Anderson. “This
also includes calls for service that are off in a field, like a theft of scrap metal
where the would-be thief runs off road knowing we can’t follow”. During this winter the Sheriff’s Office also
had trouble responding to calls because of snow and snow drifts.
The new vehicles are 4x4 pickup trucks, two are Chevrolets’ and
one is a Ford. The Ford pickup truck was
purchased with insurance funds to replace a patrol car that was totaled during
a pursuit. The other two trucks are
being purchased with funds paid from performing security work on the pipeline
that ran through the county. The
Sheriff’s Office received $10 an hour from the security company for the use of
a patrol car by an off duty Deputy to perform the security work. The county deposited that money into a
special fund and designated the money for the purchase of new patrol cars.
The Ford truck was purchased from Max Motors on a state bid price
of $23,800.00. The Chevrolet trucks were
purchased from Don Brown Chevrolet in St. Louis on a State Bid for $26,800.00. The
chargers that are currently in service were purchased in 2012 on state bid for
$26,000.00 each.
“We decided to purchase two different types of trucks so that we
can compare the performance of the two for consideration for future
purchases. As we look at the long range
of our fleet program, we need to make sure the vehicles we select perform
effectively, efficiently and help us meet the expectations of our
citizens. Our current fleet consists of
Chargers, Tahoe’s, a Ford Explorer and now the Trucks,” says Sheriff
Anderson. “Ultimately we just want to be
able to get to a person at a time of their need”.
