Genoa Twp. purchasing two new cruisers; switch from Ford to Dodge Chargers

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Last year Genoa Town­ship Police Chief Robert Tay­lor told mem­bers of the Genoa Town­ship Board of Trustees that, as a cost-savings mea­sure, he intended to make his department’s police cruis­ers last 150,000 miles before they are replaced.

Dur­ing the Thurs­day, Octo­ber 18, Genoa Town­ship trustee meet­ing Tay­lor took those words back; he said it wasn’t a real­is­tic promise con­sid­er­ing the vehicle’s typ­i­cal heavy use – three to seven cruis­ers are typ­i­cally on the road depend­ing on the shift.

“Main­te­nance on cruis­ers is start­ing to eat us up,” Tay­lor told the trustees. “Two cruis­ers have cost us over $20,000 in main­te­nance fees, and they’re down more than they’re up. I’m retract­ing my state­ment that I would make cruis­ers last 150,000 miles … that was a pipe dream.”

Tay­lor said the two cruis­ers that are requir­ing exces­sive repairs are a 2007 model with 114,000 miles, and a 2008 with 113,000 miles – both Ford Crown Victorias.

Tay­lor asked the trustees to approve spend­ing $79,419 out of the Police Cap­i­tal Fund to pur­chase and out­fit two 2013 Dodge Charg­ers from Greve Chrysler. The pur­chase is at State Bid pric­ing, and the total includes all gear and instal­la­tion to make the cruis­ers road ready.

Tay­lor broke the cost of the two cruis­ers into three pur­chase order requests from three ven­dors: $51,270 for the two 2013 Dodge Charg­ers from Greve Chrysler (State Bid); $10,400 for Insight for cam­eras, includ­ing instal­la­tion; and $18,149 for other cruiser equip­ment from REM Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, instal­la­tion included.

Tay­lor was asked if any of the old cruiser’s equip­ment would be trans­fer­able to the new cruisers.

“Most of our cars are Crown Vics,” Tay­lor said. “We tested three cars and chose the Chrysler Dodge Charger. No equip­ment is trans­fer­able from a Ford to the Chrysler. The two cam­eras in the Fords are old VHS mod­els; we’re hav­ing trou­ble even find­ing tapes for those models.”

Tay­lor also noted that Ford is dis­con­tin­u­ing the Crown Vic­to­ria and replac­ing it with a new law enforce­ment model. He said the newer Ford model replac­ing the Crown Vic would be sized dif­fer­ently, and equip­ment in older Ford cruis­ers would not be trans­fer­able if the town­ship pur­chased a Ford.

While he had the floor, Tay­lor gave a brief update on the con­di­tion of GTPD Offi­cer Justin Otterbacher.

On Mon­day, Octo­ber 15, Otter­bacher was injured along with OSHP Trooper Jeremy Gar­ner when their motor­cy­cles col­lided while escort­ing First Lady Michelle Obama’s motor­cade on U.S. 36/Ohio 37 east of Delaware.

Otter­bacher and Gar­ner were both taken to Grant Med­ical Cen­ter in Colum­bus in sta­ble con­di­tion with non-life-threatening injuries.

“The trooper was treated and released that evening,” Tay­lor said. “Offi­cer Otter­bacher was kept in the hos­pi­tal for two more days. He’s home now, but he has seven bro­ken ribs and a concussion.”

Tay­lor said some town­ship res­i­dents ques­tioned why a GTPD offi­cer was out­side of the town­ship serv­ing as a motor­cy­cle escort.

“We were asked by the City of Delaware as part of our mutual aid agree­ment,” Tay­lor said. “We often ask out­side depart­ments for offi­cers to come in and help us. We are not an island; if asked, we will respond.”

Tay­lor said because Genoa PD’s mutual aid agree­ments are within Delaware and Franklin coun­ties, his offi­cers would not travel out­side the two counties.

“But as far as pro­vid­ing assis­tance when requested, we are oblig­ated by our mutual aid agree­ments,” Tay­lor added.

Posted by Gary Henery on Oct 31 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.