This posting is nothing against any Fort Wayne Police officer as a given person. In fact, I admire them for the work they do and thank them for it.
Now comes the HOWEVER!
Let us look at take home police cars. The fuel, tire wear, and oil coast about 17.5 cents per mile driven on the average car. That does not include deprecation, major maintenance, or insurance. To see what it costs a year figure the officer lives five miles outside the city limits, makes that drive five days a week, and does so for 48 weeks a year. The resulting cost to property tax payer within Fort Wayne is $420.00 a year per car.
A FWPD officer living within the city gets $420.00 less in car benefits then a fellow officer living outside the city limits. If the police department has 100 cars in the take home car program that travel outside the city limits, it is costing the taxpayers $42,000 a year.
There are FWPD officers that live near the Ohio line to the east, DeKalb County line to the north, Whitley County line to the west, and Adams County line to the south. The odds of them spending as much time within the city limits over the officer living in the city can not be argued!
The chances of aiding a motorist, stopping at an accident scene, deterring erratic driving, speeding, or other crimes within the city limits will be responded to by those officers already living within the city limits. Those living at the far edges of our county lines contribute far far less to the benefits of the take home program.
To make this fair to Fort Wayne property tax payers and the police officers living within the city limits the ones that elect to live outside the city limits should pay a monthly use fee. At this current time a fee of $35.00 a month for cars and $45.00 a month for SUV issued vehicles would be fair.
Officers, regardless of rank, could opt out of the take home program if they wish to avoid the fee. Their car will be parked at the police station and they will be required to take care of the car in the same manner as if they had it at their home. Because they will be needing a parking space for their private car to park when working the city will provide them a space. They will be charged to park their private auto at the same average cost other city employees pay to park their private autos downtown.
Additionally if an officer elects to opt out of the program they will not be able to request readmission to the program for three years. Regarding any politically appointed position within the department the officer seeking to opt out will automatically resign from their appointed position.
If the union(s) representing the officers threaten to have everyone opt out then the program of take home cars will be disbanded. The cars will have a far longer life in years as the miles put on them will be decreased annually.
There is hardly one person who would not take a deal of having a car provided for them for $35.00 a month that covers fuel, tires, oil, all maintenance, and insurance. Even if they could not drive it for any other purpose then to work and home they would be thrilled with such a perk.
The city should place this use fee program in effect for every take home car the city has. If the person doesn't want to pay the fee then give up the car. The city will reduce the amount of money spent on fuel, tires purchased, maintenance, and auto insurance. The overall savings could reach a six digit figure without too much effort.
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I read your article with interest. I'll respond with my own thoughts in the same order in which you posted yours so that everyone can see an opposing view. In the interest of being up front I'll even tell you I am a Ft Wayne Police Officer. So, I have more than just a little information of my own to add to this subject.
First of all I must admit I'm not sure where you came up with your numbers at. I can tell you though that 17.5 cents a mile is not accurate. If for no other reason than because you state yourself that’s for an “average” vehicle. Squad cars are anything but average. Since I have no idea where you pulled 17.5 cents a mile from I cannot argue with the number so we’ll just use that figure. What I’d like to know is if you’ve compared the cost you came up with, $420.00 a year for a property owner – of which I am one but we’ll get back to that in a minute, to the cost of keeping a FLEET car on the road? You haven’t. So, you have absolutely no idea of the difference in cost of a FLEET car compared to a TAKE HOME squad car.
Let me explain for those of you that are unaware of exactly what the difference is. A TAKE HOME squad car is one the officer is able to drive home. He or she is allowed to use it for personal use and also allowed to use it to work part time details the officer is hired to do on their own time. A FLEET (squad) car is one that is parked at Creighton Ave and driven only by officers while on duty. Now, let’s look at the differences most people don’t often think about.
A FLEET car can be driven 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as officers coming in to start a shift load up and begin their tour. I would say it’s fair to say a fleet car though is driven on average about 17 hours a day. That would be two different shifts with about 8 hours of downtime before being put back into service again. Officers who have to drive a fleet car spend a good amount of time waiting for the previous shift’s officer to get back to the station and unload the car so they can start placing all of their gear in it. This doesn’t even take into account the time an officer needs to readjust the seats, mirrors, check the oil, clean the interior of the car, fuel up, etc, etc. Doesn’t sound like a lot but at an hourly rate multiplied by each officer for each shift on a daily basis do you want to guess what the cost of downtime is just to load a car up for each officer? Using $21.00 an hour per officer (it’s actually a little more than that but we’ll use a lower number just to give every benefit to the city) and using minimum count numbers for A shift (33 officers), B shift (42 officers), and C shift (32) officers, and using a conservative time of 15 minutes per officer each day to wait for a car, load it, clean it, and fuel it up would cost the city $561.75 PER DAY. Which taken over the course of a year, since we work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day you’d have to take the $561.75 per day and multiply it by 365 days a year to get a total cost of having a non take-home car program $205,038.75 a year. And that doesn’t even take into account the INCREASED maintenance, tires, oil changes, and replacement cots of the vehicles (You didn’t seriously think a squad car that runs 17 hours a day, 7 days a week at minimum, is going to last nearly as long as a take home car did you?) Oh, and there’s more. Each officer on every shift, the one trying to start their shift that is, is now put in the position of waiting while you, the citizen, calls repeatedly to ask why an officer hasn’t made it to their house to take their complaint/report. Fact is that happens now even with the take home car program due to the lack of STREET OFFICERS. We had one lady call the other night more than 5 times in 45 minutes wondering why an officer hadn’t made it to her house to take her burglary report yet (that’s a whole other topic for another day). Officers are responsible for the overall care and cleanliness of their take home vehicle, and to make sure all maintenance is schedule and completed on time. Of course, transporting teh vehicle to and from the garage and any waiting time the officer has while off duty is done on their own time. They city doesn’t pay the officer for any of that time. Want to guess who shoulders the financial burden when your talking about a FLEET car? The officer simply goes out of service to wait until the car gets fixed OR unloads that vehicle and finds another one to drive for their tour. All while you wait.
Take home cars allow special call out teams such as EST (commonly referred to as SWAT), F.A.C.T., Hostage Negotiation, Explosive Ordinance Unit (bomb squad), and other call out teams to respond immediately from their homes or wherever it is they may be, probably trying to spend time with their family, instead of taking the time to drive all the way to Creighton and hoping they can find a vehicle and load a car all while the incident that caused the pagers to go off in the first place waits. You’re saying you would rather wait, I’d guess that all in all it would take a page out team that would have to go to Creighton to find a squad and load up, about an hour to an hour and a half – MINIMUM, while your family members held hostage, found what they think is an explosive device, or is laying on the side of the road in a fatal crash, waiting for officers to arrive to be able to work that scene? Not trying to be melodramatic but in a city this size, these teams are utilized WEEKLY. That’s a lot of money wasted trying to get loaded up.
Also, the officer, because he now has a take home squad car, is expected to work for free every time he/she is in the vehicle. Let me explain how THIS works. The city, years ago, determined with the implementation of the take home car program that officers who were in their car were REQUIRED to respond to ALL priority 1 calls for service if they are anywhere close, REQUIRED to stop for all stranded motorists and crash scenes and are REQUIRED to enforce all traffic laws just as if they were working. The officer does not get overtime for any of this unless he/she is ON SCENE for more than 30 minutes for each incident independently of each other. I have personally spent well more than an hour a day, it happens a lot more than you would think, working for free because I came across 2 or 3 things that needed my attention but the incidents were independent of each other and therefore not eligible for any sort of compensation. The PBA (union) has started tracking the amount of time officers officers spend working for the city for free while off duty compared to actual cost of operating a take home car. I can tell you the amount of time is HUGE. The city is benefiting beyond measure by not having to pay overtime. Also, by an off duty unit taking care of an incident, it frees the uniformed officers working at that time to respond more quickly to calls for service and creates substantially less wait time for citizens. It should also be noted that not paying the officer overtime is considered illegal by law (the city would like you to believe this is not the case but there IS case law governing this sort of situation and if pushed we, the officers, believe the city would be liable for back pay). However, because we have never pushed the issue with the City of Ft Wayne it gets swept under the rug and they are allowed to continue to REQUIRE us to work for free because everyone knows Ft Wayne would spend millions to back pay us. We aren’t looking to hurt the city or the city’s budget. We just want treated fairly. Needless to say, there is a lot more I could say about this but I have more of your article to talk about.
Your idea of having officers pay $35.00 a month and $45.00 a month for SUV style vehicles and calling it “fair” is nonsense. Officer’s already pay a lot more than that if you count the amount of work we do ‘off the clock’ with no compensation. I’d GLADLY pay $35.00 a month IF the city agreed to pay us, as any other company or organization is required to, for the work we do while off duty. If they city agreed to do that I’d sign up tomorrow. The city will not do that though and there’s a reason why. I’ll let you figure it out.
Your next paragraph introduces several items so you’ll need to bear with me. First of all, officers will not take care of a FLEET car the same way they would a TAKE HOME because they simply wouldn’t have the time to do it not to mention they wouldn't be the only one driving it, hence the word FLEET car. I would however take care of it the same way if I was allowed to go out of service (in other words, not be available to take any calls for service) to get it in the same shape I would keep it in if I had control of it the other 17 hours of the day. Unless, however, you are advocating finding a parking spot for the more than 400 squad cars the department owns. Have you ever actually even been to the police station to see our parking lot? I also noticed it’s very easy for you to say “the city will provide” a parking space for our personal vehicles that we would drive to Creighton and that they should charge us for that parking spot like other city employees. Wow, where to start. First of all, I work third shift. Name another city employee that works third shift that pays for parking. You can't because there isn’t one. Again, you throw out ideas as if you have the facts to back them up but you don’t. Also, where would you recommend they provide that parking space? Again, have you even seen our parking lot? If you add 400 squad cars to the mix there wouldn’t be a single place to park our personal vehicles. Also, city employees have a parking garage to park in that they pay for (and then only on first shift – second shift and third shift doesn’t pay a fee – the garage is free at night or haven't you ever been downtown at night?). So I guess that means your also advocating building a parking garage on Creighton Ave for the police station? I guess we could level a couple of the Eden Green apartment buildings to construct that if you’d like, or maybe spend a whole bunch of money to tear down a couple houses in the area to build one. Seriously, if you’re going to say something as silly as that you’d better be able to actually come up with a plan. It’s easy to say something, it’s another thing to actually know enough of the facts to make an informed and educated statement or suggestion. I think you mean well, you simply don’t have the facts.
You say there’s hardly a person that wouldn’t take advantage of having a car provided to them for $35.00 a month. I'd agree with that! That is if you again truly considered what you were saying. It’s not just “a car”. It’s not something I can put my wife and kids in and go to the mall, the movies, or out to eat in without every single person on the road knowing what I do for a living. Your not talking about a car that people don’t flag down or try to get your attention to tell you there’s a mean dog around the corner that charging at people (been there, done that). It’s a fully marked squad car I have to work in for free. I loose far more than $35.00 every month working for free in it. As far as someone being “thrilled” with your idea, I guess that means if someone would like their employer to hook up a work phone inside their house they’d have to answer for free every time it rings but they could use the phone for free then it does sound "thrilling" doesn’t it?
You say that if an officer doesn’t want to pay the fee then they should give up the car and the city could save “a six digit figure without too much effort”. Again, I think your pulling figures out of the air without the true facts to back them up. Fact is we, the officers, are ready to give up the take home cars. We voted to do just that when presented with the ‘user fee’ you are talking about. With well more than 300 members in the PBA we had only 2, if memory serves me correctly, vote to pay. Every other officer voted to turn the keys in. As soon as the city and this administration saw the officers were more than willing to give the keys back they considered what the cost would be and they changed their minds. See, we know something the average citizen doesn’t, while the program looks bloated and appears to benefit only the officer, it’s actually the City of Ft Wayne, and most importantly the citizens, that has the best deal. Your idea is flawed in many ways because you don’t take into account all the FACTS.
I can tell you this, the cost of maintaining a fleet car compared to the cost of maintaining a take home car is far more expensive. Ask anyone who knows the facts. If this were not the case officers would already be paying. Wait, I forgot, I am a property owner so I pay my own salary (you don’t have to do that, do you?) and works for free EVERY week (you don’t have to do that either, do you?) all to save a few gallons of gas a month. Guess I’m already paying.
Don't get me wrong. I love what I do. I enjoy being able to help people when the opportunity happens. But for far too long we, as a group of officers, have not been able to talk about this issue and take the abuse by certain well-meaning citizens because we are not allowed, by department policy of course, to talk to the media without the department's approval (think they'd give us that approval on a topic like this?). So, people that don't really understand all the facts and who haven't taken the time to educate themselves gets to spew forth a bunch of half truths and missleading information without us being able to present our side. All we want is to be treated fairly. If you don't like the take home car program that's your right. But if we have to pay on top of working for free, I'm sorry, you can have the car back. It's honestly not worth it.
Thank you for the opportunity to tell you a few facts.
Two points to make before I respond to your comments. First, I salute all the people in law enforcement. This has nothing to do with the person wearing the uniform. Second, I thank you for your post. Your post allows others to obtain a view from the other side. Multiple views often produce the best results.
You raised the issue of my using 17.5 cents a mile for cost of gas, maintenance, and tire wear. The number was VERY LOW and was intended to be such. It used the concept the City of Fort Wayne paid only $2.40 a gallon for gas, under a master contract. To maintain the conservative thought process the number 20 was used for miles to the gallon. If the car gets less then 20 mpg then the 12 cents per mile would increase. As for maintaince, tires, and oil I found numbers that varied from 5.5 to 9.8 cents a mile. I elected to use the lowest one to illustrate the point.
I could not find any place that provided the actual cost to operate a police car that included just fuel, maintaince, tire wear, and oil. So the number of 17.5 cents a mile is HIGHLY CONSERVATIVE number. The real number, if I was to guess, would be five to seven times higher.
The numbers I used where HIGHLY UNDERSTATED. Hence, the real number of what these officers living outside the city limit enjoys over his brother officer from within the city limits would be multiple times higher then I illustrated.
You raise the issue of the PBA voting on the take home car issue. I thought the city charging ALL officers for the use of their take home care. I have no doubt the union members voted nearly 100% in favor that they would turn in their keys over paying some fee for it. Heck, if I was in the union I would have voted the same way. Then again, I would guess many of them hoped they did not lose their car. It was a bluff attempt and the PBA won.
Most everything you wrote about I support or agree with 100%. I also believe the FWPD should have a better work place then the Crieghton Ave location. However that is for some other day.
This is not a ANTI FORT WAYNE POLICE CAR TAKE HOME issue! Again, I supported the concept of the take home car program from the first time it was mentioned here in Fort Wayne.
What was not addressed in your comments, and I look forward to your reply, is officers living within the city limits of Fort Wayne are more prone to assist Fort Wayne taxpayers then those who live outside the city limits. Also, that Fort Wayne city taxpayers pay more taxes for police officers living outside the city limits then we compensate officers living within the city when factoring in total cost of a take home car.
Is Fort Wayne Police Officers required to accept a TAKE HOME CAR? I thought, they are not, but wait for your reply.
I seek no fight with any one but only fairness and what is best for Fort Wayne city taxpayers. When someone can show me hard numbers that dispute my belief I will stand by the fact the officers living outside the city limits should pay some fair fee for having such.
I've thought about your post and after careful consideration I've decided to respond. Know this though, even typing this could get me in trouble but there comes a point when people simply need to know.
I agree, the numbers you used, especially the 17.5 cents is VERY CONSERVATIVE. My response was only to point out that I wasn't sure where you got your numbers from but I can tell you that regardless of what the department may tell you, the Impalas we're driving aren't getting a lot better gas mileage, if any, than the Crown Vic's they had. From the numbers I'm keeping I'm only averaging about 11-12 mph in my own take home car. I don't believe that's what the department had in mind when they made the switch, but I honestly believe they've bought in hook, line, and sinker and are too stubborn to admit they may have made a mistake. In my own opinion I think the department could save money by at least giving the Dodge Chargers a trial run like Allen County is. The Chargers at least have the option of going from an 8 cylinder when it's being pushed to a 4 cylinder when it's being used under 'normal' circumstances, which is the majority of the time. The biggest problem with the Impalas, from what I can get from the guys at the garage, is the cost of repairing the cars are more expensive then the Crown Vic’s were.
However, on to what you are really asking about. Should officers who live outside the city pay for the use of a take home car since they are less prone to assist a city taxpayer than an officer living inside the city limits? From my standpoint, there are a couple ways to look at this. What is a county officer or a state troopers life worth? If an Allen County Sheriff's Deputy or an Indiana State Trooper were killed in city would the citizens of Ft Wayne city just wash their hands of it and say it wasn't 'our problem'? Do you know that many of the crimes committed in the county are from citizens living inside the city limits? Crime knows no boundry, why should the cars?
Also, if there's an officer that lives outside the city what do you do if they're on a call out team, such as EST, CRT, FACT, EOD, etc, etc? Do you tell those officers they have to be on call and responsible to the department, and therefore the taxpayers, 24/7 but you're going to tell them they have to drive into Creighton in their personal vehicle only to then load all their gear up for a call out? Or better yet, tell them they have to drop whatever their doing at any time, day or night, to respond to a call in the city and not only that but they have to pay the city for the right to do that? That would end up hurting the citizens of Ft Wayne, not help them. If they charge officers living outside the city what do you tell officers that live in the city limits but may use the car in the county? Do you tell them they are only allowed to use the car inside the city limits? If so, that literally means I wouldn't be able to drive across the street. If you're asking me personally if an officer that lives outside the city be made to pay for the use of a take home car I would answer no. I believe the majority of officers, whether they live in the city or the county, assist taxpayers of every kind enough to justify the city's cost.
For many there is no easy answer to what you are asking. There are many interests to look at and many sides to this issue. Using what you are saying then it would be fair for the Allen County Sheriffs Department to tell their officers to stop assisting anyone inside the city limits since they only have to worry about the county taxpayers, right? If you're in a crash or have something you are concerned about and you see an officer do you care what uniform they're wearing? How would you feel if you were on your way to work or home and someone crashed into you and a Sheriffs car or a State Trooper drove past you but told you they couldn't help you because you were in the city? You, as a citizen, expect service from whatever agency drives past you regardless of what agency they work for and you should. In Indiana, officers are sworn in as Law Enforcement Officers of the State of Indiana. Period. The municipality only comes into play when talking about specific city or county ordinances. An officer is an officer.
Here's something to consider when you hear this administration in particular start talking about all the costs associated with the take home car program. Ask the Chief of Police to answer some questions for you, the taxpayer. Ask him first of all who he allows to drive their department squad car OUT OF COUNTY. Did you know the Chief allows this? Also, since the Chief allows this ask what the parameters of this HUGE benefit are, since we have never been able to get an answer from him. To be fair, you should know there is a member of the EOD (bomb squad) that was told to be on that call out team he had to live in Allen County because he wouldn't be allowed to take the take home car outside the county. So, the officer uprooted his wife and children and relocated to Allen County. Now, keep in mind the EOD team responds to AT LEAST seven other counties, I think they're up to nine counties now though, to assist them with explosive devices/bomb investigations. Keeping that in mind, you need to know there are a few members of other call out teams, really only one to be honest but the Chief would need to tell you which one, that are able to take their take home cars out of Allen County and drive it home. Why? The Chief refuses to give an answer and there doesn't appear to be one. Why is one call out member who responds to other counties to conduct investigations forced to relocate when other call out team members that don't respond to anything out of the county on a regular basis (IE/ RARELY - and that's being generous) aren't? Also, there are others in the Chiefs command staff the Chief allows to drive their take home car out of Allen County. However, the administration didn't tell you, the tax paying citizens, all this when they were trying to justify charging all officers for use of a car did they?
From an officers standpoint this whole thing smacks of hypocrisy.
Trust me when I tell you that I, along with every other officer, appreciate your support of the take home car program. You should know though, the PBA's vote was not a "bluff" as you stated. Did the officers want to lose the use of a take home car? No, we didn't. Were we fully prepared to force the issue and park the cars if necessary? Absolutely. This was NOT a bluff. There's a much bigger issue here than a car. If the officers truly wanted to, we'd simply file a suit against the City of Ft Wayne, the Mayor, and the administration of the Ft Wayne Police Department for violation of fair labor laws in reference to our overtime. It's obviously not our desire to do so though by the lack of any action taken on our part.
I know this issue for the regular taxpayer seems like a no brainer. But, consider that a Trooper was recently shot to death on a road in Huntington County and the city/county of Huntington paid nothing to that Trooper who gave his last breath to that community. I'm sure that Troopers family could have cared less which department would have been there to back him up; they just wished someone were there. People always say it'll never happen, until it happens. We, as officers, live with that thought every day. That's why the thought of WHICH taxpayers are benefiting from something when an officer is willing to risk his life in any community in this state, I know of no officer that wouldn't respond to a need they see regardless of whether it's their neighbor or something they see in another town, just seems so petty. Why can't we as a city just say we want the safest community we can get and if it costs us a few cars being parked in the county then so what. When I visit the web page www.odmp.org and see another officer killed in the line of duty it makes me ill to think we're arguing over who'd benefiting from a police car and who's paying for it. I can tell you this, regardless of what the budget says, the officers ARE paying for it.
I just saw your post and it is a little after midnight. I will read it in the morning and post my comments. Thanks JQ
had typed a pretty long reply to your comments but when I got to the end and you delivered a shocker. You and I can debate the take home car any day. It is an issue of fairness to Fort Wayne city taxpayers. However police cars being driven outside the county is against set policy. Hence, the public has a right to know who, why, and justification of such when not afforded to all officers.
The people driving outside the county must have lived within Allen County to be hired. Hence, they moved outside after being hired. They knew when they moved outside the county they would no longer qualify for a take home car. If they where hired before the take home car program started they knew they did not qualify when it was started. It appears the FWPD Chief cannot justify allowing for such to happen.
I do not doubt your story of being true, but I do try to confirm everything I post here. There are several ways you can get the info to me by email without it being able to be traced to you. I could careless how I get it but I need some facts to start with. Then I will post what I learn. Otherwise, sadly it will remain only a rumor.
Was just reading your post/answer to "Something to think about". I personally know that officer who was ordered to move within the Allen County limits to be on the bomb squad and, No..helived outside of the county when he was hired. As a matter of fact the home interview for employment took place at his residence outside of the county. His residence was located 1/4 mile from the county line. 6 weeks after moving into the county, to satisy Commands needs, another police officer, with less seniority on a call out team was awarded the ability to live outside of the county and continue his tenure. How is this fair?
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