100 New Kansas City police cars sit idle www.privateofficer.com
Kansas City MO July 1 2009
kcnews.com The Kansas City Police Department spent at least $2.1 million in the last 13 months to buy more than 100 vehicles that will take months — perhaps years — to fully deploy.
And some Kansas City Council members, still in the midst of their own budget crisis, are angry. Part of that money, they contend, might have helped keep officers on the streets instead of keeping idle cars in a garage for the future.
“We know they need cars,” said Councilwoman Deb Hermann. “But we need things at the city, too.”
Police spokesman Capt. Rich Lockhart said the department bought the vehicles in the last fiscal year, which started in May 2008. Roughly half were purchased last fall, at a cost of more than $1 million.
Then this spring, Lockhart said the Board of Police Commissioners approved spending an additional $1 million on 50 more police cars, bringing total spending to $2.1 million — twice the department’s original vehicle replacement budget.
Lockhart said 91 cars and 12 vans the department purchased are still off the streets. They’re being stored in two locations: half of them in newly leased space at the overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport.
The department is storing the cars and vans until they can be outfitted with radios, light bars and other equipment, he said. But because of cutbacks in maintenance workers, it takes more than 50 hours to get a single vehicle ready.
The result: It could be two years before all 103 cars and vans are available for service.
“We’re hoping to be able to get some money to get them out quicker,” Lockhart said. “We’ve got to have them.”
Council members, though, said some of the money might have been better spent on officers.
“If they are so short of funds to keep police on the streets — it’s very odd what their priorities appear to be,” said Councilwoman Jan Marcason.
Hermann and Marcason are particularly upset because the department, with the approval of the Board of Police Commissioners in March, spent almost $1 million on new cars in the midst of a heated argument with the council over police priorities and cutbacks.
Lockhart said the department could afford the additional cars this spring because the price of gasoline dropped, saving the department $900,000.
Rather than return those savings to the city — or use the money for other purposes in the department — police officials decided to buy cars, partly because they were afraid they wouldn’t get more car money anytime soon.
“We did not think we would be able to purchase cars this year,” Lockhart said, adding that the department in essence bought the cars a year ahead of time.
In a statement, Police Chief Jim Corwin said the vehicle purchases made sense.
“This was good planning in a tough budget year,” he wrote. “We realized budget savings, and we bought the vehicles when we had the money.”
Mayor Mark Funkhouser, who’s also a member of the police board, defended the spending, too.
“If you’re going to have officers responding … you’re going to have to have cars and people,” Funkhouser said. “I don’t think those cars are going to be sitting there for a year.”
The police board president, Mark Thompson, did not return calls seeking comment.
Lockhart said the department spent the money this spring in part because it felt the gas savings could not be returned to the city’s treasury, and said that that buying the cars now would actually save money because car prices could go up.
kcnews.com The Kansas City Police Department spent at least $2.1 million in the last 13 months to buy more than 100 vehicles that will take months — perhaps years — to fully deploy.
And some Kansas City Council members, still in the midst of their own budget crisis, are angry. Part of that money, they contend, might have helped keep officers on the streets instead of keeping idle cars in a garage for the future.
“We know they need cars,” said Councilwoman Deb Hermann. “But we need things at the city, too.”
Police spokesman Capt. Rich Lockhart said the department bought the vehicles in the last fiscal year, which started in May 2008. Roughly half were purchased last fall, at a cost of more than $1 million.
Then this spring, Lockhart said the Board of Police Commissioners approved spending an additional $1 million on 50 more police cars, bringing total spending to $2.1 million — twice the department’s original vehicle replacement budget.
Lockhart said 91 cars and 12 vans the department purchased are still off the streets. They’re being stored in two locations: half of them in newly leased space at the overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport.
The department is storing the cars and vans until they can be outfitted with radios, light bars and other equipment, he said. But because of cutbacks in maintenance workers, it takes more than 50 hours to get a single vehicle ready.
The result: It could be two years before all 103 cars and vans are available for service.
“We’re hoping to be able to get some money to get them out quicker,” Lockhart said. “We’ve got to have them.”
Council members, though, said some of the money might have been better spent on officers.
“If they are so short of funds to keep police on the streets — it’s very odd what their priorities appear to be,” said Councilwoman Jan Marcason.
Hermann and Marcason are particularly upset because the department, with the approval of the Board of Police Commissioners in March, spent almost $1 million on new cars in the midst of a heated argument with the council over police priorities and cutbacks.
Lockhart said the department could afford the additional cars this spring because the price of gasoline dropped, saving the department $900,000.
Rather than return those savings to the city — or use the money for other purposes in the department — police officials decided to buy cars, partly because they were afraid they wouldn’t get more car money anytime soon.
“We did not think we would be able to purchase cars this year,” Lockhart said, adding that the department in essence bought the cars a year ahead of time.
In a statement, Police Chief Jim Corwin said the vehicle purchases made sense.
“This was good planning in a tough budget year,” he wrote. “We realized budget savings, and we bought the vehicles when we had the money.”
Mayor Mark Funkhouser, who’s also a member of the police board, defended the spending, too.
“If you’re going to have officers responding … you’re going to have to have cars and people,” Funkhouser said. “I don’t think those cars are going to be sitting there for a year.”
The police board president, Mark Thompson, did not return calls seeking comment.
Lockhart said the department spent the money this spring in part because it felt the gas savings could not be returned to the city’s treasury, and said that that buying the cars now would actually save money because car prices could go up.
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