Haymarket enters lease for 5 new police SUVs

HAYMARKET, Va. — The town of Haymarket will lease five new police SUVs and replace its current mismatched fleet of police cars.

The town will pay $149,390 for five 2017 Ford Police Interceptor Utility Vehicles that will be delivered all at once. A five-year loan from the Virginia Association of Counties, with about a 2% interest rate will be used to fund the new cars.

Each new car will cost $29,878, and all will need to be fitted with new lights, sirens, radios, cages and radios at the total cost of $40,000. That money is already in the town’s budget and will not be rolled inot the loan.

The town originally budgeted to purchase one new police car a year for the next five years. Leaders chose a “municipal leasing” program that does not penalize the town for placing high mileage on the new vehicles, or for any damages that they could incur while being use to patrol the streets.

The SUVs will all have matching paint and reflective decals and offer the officers inside more room to work in the front, and more space to store gear in the rear. It also provides more room for the prisoner in the back seat. Over the years, the role of Haymarket police officers has evolved from watching for speeders on Route 15 near Interstate 66 to paroling more inside the village’s main street.

“Even though the highway is in our jurisdiction, 95 percent of what we do is in town,” said Haymarket Police Chief Kevin Lands. “The focus of this council and this mayor is to make Haymarket a walking town, so we have to slow traffic on Washington Street.”

The town’s current fleet of police vehicles is a mixture of cars ranging in age of six to 11 years old. In the fleet are Dodge Chargers, Ford sedans, and a Chevy Trailblazer that dates back to 2002.

It costs about $15,000 a year to keep the cars in good working order. A 2006 Dodge Chargers is in need of a $4,000 engine replacement and front-end suspension work, while another 2009 model recently underwent its third engine replacement.

All of the older police cars will be sold after the new ones arrive, except a 2013 Ford Interceptor sedan which will be used as a spare. The 2002 Trailblazer which will be turned over the town administrator for use on government business.

The cars are used daily by police officers who have put about 60 to 80 miles on them per day. Unlike regular cars, police vehicles are regularly parked with lights flashing and engines running while officers stop a speeder, temporarily close a road, or just about anything else an officer does while on the job.

“Mileage of sixty to 70,000 miles on police vehicles, they’re a whole lot harder miles on a police car than they would be in a civilian car,” said Lands. “Idle hours kills an engine, and we do that we’re on a scene or any call for services.”

A 2013 Ford Interceptor sedan used by Lands averaged the most miles than any other car in the fleet between January 31 and February 27, racking up 2,098 miles in 17 working days.

“We are fortunate that Chief Lands saw an area that was lacking and addressed it by the purchase of the upgraded police fleet without any additional increase in the previous year’s funding, and is in line with the CIP program,” said Haymarket Mayor David Leake. “Chief Lands has successfully done this in several other agencies, including Halifax, Virginia.”