$3 mil in New Patrol Cars Still Sitting Unused

[DowntownNow]

Posted 02/13/09 by KTUL
http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0209/594867.html

Turns out the City has been sitting on approximately $3 million dollars worth of new vehicles that were appropriated for the Tulsa Police Department.  Some have been on the storage lot since at least October 2008.

In a related storiy that aired this evening, Chief Ron Palmer when questioned by KTUL, stated that these vehicles were awaiting installation of equipment before being put into service.  He also stated that the vehicles were 2008s and 2009s and that shipments were received at various times but that the department responsible for installing the equipment can not turn them over fast enough.  The story further suggested that even before these vehicles are all put into service, delivery of the next years appropriations would start.  

Question:  Who handles contracts for procurement and why do they not coordinate efforts among the various departments to ensure that any procurement is outfitted in a timely fashion so as to not have taxpayer dollars sitting in a lot and idle for now going on 4 month or more?

If there is a shortage of staff, why not purchase and allocate in a more effective and scheduled manner, reducing the order to a level that is commensurate with the ability to install the equipment?  

Better question, why not farm the installation out to other providers if the City's department can not keep up and get these idle vehicles out where they can do some good?

[sgrizzle]

Most likely they get a discount by ordering the vehicles in lots of a certain number. Sure, they could pay another company or contractors to put the cars out faster but then you would be increasing the overall budget for TPD and also once they have finished one lot of cars, the people who outfit vehicles would have months of idle time.

[joiei]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

Most likely they get a discount by ordering the vehicles in lots of a certain number. Sure, they could pay another company or contractors to put the cars out faster but then you would be increasing the overall budget for TPD and also once they have finished one lot of cars, the people who outfit vehicles would have months of idle time.

What sgrizzle said

[Wilbur]

The police cars, depending on the make (Ford, Chevy and Dodge are all used) tend to come in approximately the same time each year.  This year was goofy for a couple of the manufacturers, so that messed up some of the schedule.

The people who do all of the electronics installs is also down a couple people, which is hurting matters worse then anything else.

Edit:  Agencies are also at the mercy of the manufacturers, who typically only build police cars once per year.  They gather orders from across the country, then go into production and build them all at one time.  Police cars are not your drive-off-the-lot typical car.

[dbacks fan]

Better question, why not farm the installation out to other providers if the City's department can not keep up and get these idle vehicles out where they can do some good?

Think about it for a moment, do you really want a civilian business to have acces to 2 way radios, and computer equipmen that is set up for police use?

I work for a city gov't and I can tell you that as I type this we have recieved 15 new cruisers in the last month. They are currently prepped and ready to go into service. We can't just put them out there as we don't have the officers to use them. These are replacement cars for ones that are end of service, and two that were damaged in accidents. As for the purchasing cycle there is truth to that, they do a production run once to twice a year depending on the orders they recieve. As for the next two years here we won't be purchasing any new cruisers to replace some of the aging fleet, we will only be purchasing to replace wrecked ones do to budget cutbacks.

[MDepr2007]

They didn't open the bids for the graphicsuntil Oct. 2008