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Norwalk: Police Looking For Additional Cruisers


by turfgrrl


March 13th, 2008 · 25 Comments

The gist here is that by buying more new cars will mean less in maintenance costs for the older cars. From The Hour:

The Norwalk Police Department could get 15 new cruisers this year — rather than its usual allotment of 10 — if it can be demonstrated that saved maintenance costs offset the added expense.

Mayor Richard A. Moccia posed the idea to fellow members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation Wednesday night, as the tax board reviewed Police Chief Harry W. Rilling’s spending request for fiscal year 2008-09.

“We’re talking about the increase in maintenance,” Moccia said. “If we were to give you the full $634,000, how much is that going to reduce your budget in the (maintenance) area to offset some of that?”

Rilling has requested $634,000 to purchase 15 Crown Victoria outfitted police cruisers and four unmarked vehicles. The city’s recommended budget includes $354,000 for 10 vehicles.

Police now replace vehicles every five to six years and typically receive funding for 10 new vehicles each year.

“We’d like to find a way of reaching a point where we could rotate our marked vehicles, our emergency response vehicles, out of the fleet every three years because we find at some point we’re starting to put good money into a bad car,” Rilling told the tax board.

source: The Hour, Police dept. cruising for additional vehicles, March 13, 2008

Tags: Norwalk

25 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: Police Looking For Additional Cruisers”



  • 1 Anonymous // Mar 13, 2008 at 10:18 am

    no where in any reports has there been a condition report on the cars we have now.According to officers from the Norwalk police dept finding one that works behind the police statuion can be time consuming and dangerous if your a backup to someone responding to a call from the station when change of shift occurs.

    Turn in value as one asked can be limited when the condition of the cars are to say least ready for Lajoies when that time is considered.

    Why would anyone spend money on a bad car? When they are spending taxpayers money of course. Who is working on the cars? Why are they not at the meeting talking about the condition and the work that some need as we are going thru budget talks?

    There is always a smoking gun when it comes to the police dept isn’t there?

  • 2 Anonymous // Mar 13, 2008 at 10:28 am

    Where was there mentioned the police boats or what is called the marine division or is that next on the agenda? They take gas , consume money for upkeep and repair and were responsible for many arrests and saves at sea and assisted the fire dept last year. So where is the budget for that section of the of the police dept. We are talking thousands of dallars to mainatin this very important branch of our police dept where is the breakdown? We have what 3 boats ask anyone who has one they coast money even if they are on a trailor in the back yard.

    You can’t expect to gain revenue from the water assets and not spend money to maintain a safe harbour and coast line, so where is our tourism and our dept heads who generate money from taxes connected to the water?

    There must be somewhere in the city all these people must hide because we never hear from them at budget time.

  • 3 Adam Blank // Mar 14, 2008 at 10:09 am

    I agree that police cruisers should be taken out of commission when the expected maintenance costs exceed the cost to purchase new cruisers or when their reliability is so poor it presents a safety hazard. Why does it appear that the city only wants to conduct this analysis on the 5 additional cruisers, shouldn’t this analysis have already been done, and isn’t that the reason why we replace 10 a year? Additionally, when a cruiser is taken out of commission, is it then used for a year or two by the detectives or transferred to another city department which does not have emergencies? I know other towns use this type of rotation for their police vehicles to save $$.

  • 4 Captain // Mar 17, 2008 at 10:16 am

    The numbers don’t make sense. The recommended budget allows 35,400 (354,000 divided by 10) for each of 10 new cars. The Chief is asking for 42,266 (634,000 divided by 15) for each of 15 new cars. Both numbers include cars and some special equipment, but the cost per car should be consistent. What do they expect to pay for each car ? There should be a mileage at which they take cars out of patrol service. Only people with real numbers can decide if conversion to some other use makes more sense than trading in old cars. With current service/warranty deals available, up to 100,000 miles, maybe it would save money to include all maintenance/service in purchase bids and trade cars before the warranty runs out.

  • 5 Anonymous // Mar 17, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    Its just that numbers.We heard nothing on condition of each cruiser and looking back what was the expectations on the new ones we got from grants. It made great headlines then it could make great headlines now if we could read about the existing fleet and its cars that no longer road worthy.We never get detailed information and trusting others who couldn’t do an oil change themselves is what some are banking on. We don’t have stupid people working the city for us we have trusted dept heads who enjoy delivering red herrings until the cows come home and milk their budget until its next fiscal period. Always stealing from Harry to pay Dennis to keep Hal going. Ever have a Norwalk cruiser pass you on 95? Some cities have guildlines on speed on an open highway whats Norwalks policy , no high speed chases in the city limits is a good policy buts its for safety and not fleet protection.Last cruiser that passed me on the 95 was doing 95 plus.

  • 6 Anonymous // Mar 21, 2008 at 2:25 am

    Did anyone look at the possibility of teaching the Norwalk Police Officer how to drive…If you look at cars in other cities and towns..and the state police they seem to have less dents and don’t look like they been cowboy-ed around like the Norwalk car…..But then again this goes hand in hand with the lack of control and disciplined in the Norwalk Police Department…Oh and the article say they replace cars every 5 to 6 years…I dare anyone to find a 6 year old marked car in the fleet…What they are not telling you is the cars are taken out of real police service after 2 to 3 years….I know of no other town that goes threw the amount of cars as Norwalk…..If the Police can’t drive put the on foot patrol….Hey they can stand to loose some weight anyhow.Rilling needs to go

  • 7 Anonymous // Mar 21, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    Makes you wonder if leadership is an issue why are these threads even started?

  • 8 Anonymous // Mar 30, 2008 at 12:55 am

    Comm. Johnson feels we are being billed for things that should be going to the police dept., for example, last month there was a bill for motor oil that obviously was not for the shellfish patrol boat. When he questioned it, the bill was redirected. The police dept has budget for fuel and should be paying for the gas and oil used by marine police. Chair will communicate with Sgt LaPak. Comm. Johnson also reports he has corrected error in sending contribution to Dick Harris at Earthplace and check has finally been sent.

    Just another reason why the police dept needs accountability.

  • 9 Anonymous // Mar 30, 2008 at 1:25 am

    who changes the oil on the old cruisers?

  • 10 Anonymous // Mar 30, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    wow talk about mismanagement! What else is going on in the police dept?

  • 11 anonymous // Mar 30, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    NYPD removes marked patrol cars from the fleet after about 3 years on average. It is rare that you will see a patrol car on the street at 4. Cars that are unmarked throughout their lifetime average a little longer at 4-4 1/2 years. NY State Police remove almost all cars from the road at 60,000 miles regardless of age. Most State Police agencies do the same. Anyone know age and mileage on Norwalk’s fleet?

  • 12 Anonymous // Mar 30, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    #11 I am afraid your information is incorrect..I work in NYC and have seen marked patrol cars that are 6 and 7 years old.. This is clear by models that are not even in production any longer. For that matter Stamford also manages to keep there cars 6 to 7 years. Also I have a friend that works for the state police and when I just called him and asked if they remove there cars at 60,000 his response was what do you think I get a new car every year….Lets say whats true NPD cowboys there cars around with no respect for them as the taxpayer is paying for them…This is clear by the amount of dents in the NPD cars vs other towns. Matter of fact I have never seen cars with so many dents even the 6 year old nypd marked cars. Its time we hold the officer accountable for there driving skills…if they cant drive then put them on foot patrol and see if they can walk.

  • 13 Captain. // Mar 30, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    You would be amazed how many would volunteer to walk. It is a lot less work, and the walking is good for you, once you get used to it. It will never happen, they cannot manage the calls they have now with less cars, and they will not spend the money, unless forced, to put more cops on the street. Look at the contract, it very carefully says there is no minimum manpower clause. If only four people show up to work a shift, the supervisors will try to hire some more on OT, but the real numbers out there sometimes(frequently) are pretty scary. Curwen is not making anything up.

  • 14 anonymous // Mar 30, 2008 at 5:44 pm

    Those are the numbers I got from a NY times in August of 2006. They gave the stats on the cars when they started testing Chargers.

  • 15 Anonymous // Mar 31, 2008 at 3:00 am

    WoW you saved the Aug. 2006 new york times….why do I feel your not being truthful???

  • 16 anonymous // Mar 31, 2008 at 10:27 am

    Try googling life expectancy of police cars.

  • 17 The Ghost Who Walks // Mar 31, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    Hey #6 is way off base. They are not saying that the cars are damaged by Police Officers- The problem is that Patrol Cars drive 24 hours a day. They just wear out. I’ve talked to some of the Norwalk Cops and they say that some of the cars have over 100,000 miles. (That’s 100,000 hard miles).
    Also Norwalk does not budget for cosmetic repairs-that’s why there are so many beat up looking cars.
    Many people say it started with Knopp, who cut the PDs budget for these things. Of course he left several years ago- so the blame falls on the Chief.

  • 18 Anonymous // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    #17 your so right, the last couple of accidents involving the police cars have had no driver they were hit while blocking traffice or after they responded to calls. The one downtown Sono was certaily not an officers fault recently.

    Your right about the miles same friends you speak of say its not good with a lot of the older cars they simply don’t start or when you leave the station lot . You never know if its going to work until your at the washington st bridge and the car doesn’t respond right.Then its back for another its sad we treat our officers this way.

    So where do they keep the cars now that are not road worthy? Lajoies?

  • 19 Anonymous // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:51 pm

    Ms. Bardon reported that the reliability of the vehicles continues to plague the department; not only for the DPW, but also for the Police, Planning & Zoning and the Parking Authority. All of the problems with the vehicles are related to their advanced age.

    Mr. Alvord said that they get police cruisers at seven years of age. If they sold them, they could get $3,000 - $3,500 and used that to create a fund that could be used to purchase staff cars, such as a Saturn.

    Mr. Alvord stressed that the fleet is an absolute disaster. Ms. Bardon gave an example of when one car is in park, it rolls away.

    Mr. Alvord said that in the Operations meeting, Mayor Knopp said that he received Mr. Alvord’s memo regarding the fleet and said that it looked promising. He will ask the Finance Department to verify Mr. Alvord’s analysis. Mr. Bondi told Mr. Alvord that he should look into purchasing small cars. Ms. Bardon said that they need to do a “needs assessment” to determine who should have a car.

    this was back in 2005

  • 20 Anonymous // Apr 2, 2008 at 1:41 am

    #17 talking to the police about the issue is like using your wifes divorce attorney…My point about the cosmetic condition of the cars was that they are driven irresponsible by the police officer…Other towns also drive the cars 24 hours a day and are in no where the poor condition of Norwalk..this goes hand in hand with the general lack of discipline of the Norwalk Police Officer…So I am Right on BASE

  • 21 Anonymous // Apr 2, 2008 at 1:44 am

    #16 no need for me to goggle as I am aware of the surrounding cities age of there cars..Stamford has some cars as old as 7 years…so does Bridgeport…this is very easy to tell as the tail lamps were changed 5 years ago on the ford crown victoria to the current style…So the one with the old style lamp would be 6 to 7 years old…

  • 22 Anonymous // Apr 2, 2008 at 1:47 am

    Norwalk is just filled with idiots…Who in there right mind would suggest spending more tax dollars on patrol cars for the cops to be careless with…this is so typical for the Norwalk resident they must be blind and stupid. You are the reason the police debarment is out of control

  • 23 Anonymous // Apr 2, 2008 at 2:02 am

    With all that big fancy building going on I imagine a new fire truck that reaches 10 stories may be something we should think about. They cost about a 1/2 million and are used but only three times a year if it sees a parade.They talk new station more men ect what ever happened in being honest with the taxpayer.

  • 24 Anonymous // Apr 2, 2008 at 2:07 am

    #23 honest with the taxpayer. in Norwalk you must be in the wrong town

  • 25 Anonymous // Apr 23, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    I saw a cruiser last night on a flatbed fluid everywhere I know if it was my car I’d be looking for another today,flatbed driver said third in as many days needing repair so whats the deal are we running low on police cars?

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