Wheeling Police Transition to Take-Home Cruisers Nearly Complete
Eric Ayres (file) Trending
WHEELING -- This has been a landmark year for the Wheeling Police Department. Not only did the department see the completion of its new, state-of-the-art police headquarters in Centre Wheeling, but it appears that implementation of its take-home cruiser program is also nearing completion.
For years, Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger had strongly advocated for the concept of assigning individual cruisers to each officer on the force. Before the take-home cruiser program was implemented, many patrol officers shared vehicles -- a practice that keeps cruisers running constantly between different work shifts, resulting in very high wear and tear on the vehicles and greatly reducing their longevity on the road.
In 2021, members of Wheeling City Council agreed with the police chief's position on the matter and began funding the initiative to purchase vehicles for each officer.
City leaders indicated that the program was put in place in waves over the course of the past two years, rotating in groups of new vehicles beyond the typical annual rotation of older vehicle retirement and replacement. In a typical year before the new take-home program was initiated, the Wheeling Police Department had routinely purchased between four to six new vehicles to replace cars that need to be retired from the fleet.
Each new vehicle - typically a Dodge Charger - also has to be outfitted with the police package that includes light bars, dash cameras and various equipment needed for typical patrol cars.
This past week, Schwertfeger reported that the program was nearly completed, noting that all but four officers on the force now have their own take-home cruisers. The handful of officers who do not yet have their own vehicle are still in the process of becoming fully certified to join the force, city leaders noted.
"One is currently finishing up training, and three are in the academy," Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron told members of city council. "We do have cruisers yet to be outfitted, but that program has basically been fully implemented and thus far has been very successful."
In recent years, city officials have utilized money from the city's Restricted Capital Improvement Program or RCIP fund to pay for outfitting new police vehicles, and money from the city's Project Fund - which had been bolstered with federal reimbursements from the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act funds - has been used to pay for a number of the new vehicles.
Last summer, city council took action at one meeting to purchase and outfit 19 new Dodge Chargers for the program - at a total cost of just under $1 million. The average cost of one of the new vehicles in 2022 was just under $37,000 and the price to outfit each car was just under $15,000.
Schwertfeger has noted that the take-home program is expected to be more cost efficient in the long run, as patrol vehicles in heavy rotation rack up mileage quickly, causing more wear and tear, quickly pushing those vehicles beyond their warranties and resulting in a need to replace them long before vehicles with more traditional usage.
"At the end of the day, it saves money because of the warranty situation, plus there are many other benefits," Schwertfeger said when advocating for the program. "For example, when an officer takes his vehicle home, there's increased police visibility in the neighborhood, and there is increased response time to emergency incidents if that officer is called out."
Previously, all officers in the Wheeling Police Department with a rank of sergeant or higher had their own police vehicles, which they were able to take home. The others were all in non-stop rotation.
"Thanks to city council for funding that initiative, and congratulations to the police department for successfully implementing it," Herron said.