An incident command post set up by the Police Department when two officers were shot a few weeks ago left behind a scene so toxic the Fire Department had to clean it up.
Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus blames aging, increasingly-harder-to-fix police vehicles his department is continuing to use. In this case, a large command post vehicle that leaks diesel fuel.
“It is embarrassing when there is diesel fuel leaking from the command post to the point the Fire Department has to clean up a hazmat situation,” Magnus said last week.
The Tucson City Council is considering whether to put a half-cent sales-tax increase on the ballot next May.
The tax would generate an estimated $50 million annually, with approximately $30 million going to replace aging equipment in the Police and Fire departments.
The other $20 million would go to road projects, under the proposal being considered.
The Great Recession, coupled with year-over-year budget belt-tightening, have led to the Police Department’s outdated fleet of vehicles spending an increasing amount of time in the repair shop rather than on the road.
The situation is costing taxpayers and also, in some rare cases, has become a safety issue to the public as well as officers.
“We have cases where officers have been in pursuit of really violent felons, and the cars have failed,” the police chief said.
On paper, the cars are relatively young and have low mileage when compared to what the average resident might consider the end of the line for their personal vehicles.
Magnus argues the patrol vehicles are basically driven around the clock with little down time.
“They are constantly being driven under extreme conditions whether responding to a (high priority emergency) call or to many things; this is a 225-square-mile city,” he said.
The department estimates 63 percent of its marked patrol vehicles are beyond their recommended useful service life and 80 percent of the unmarked vehicles are due for replacement.
Sitting in the back seat of an aging cruiser with the paint peeling off and a massive hole in the dashboard, Magnus praised city mechanics who keep the department’s cars running.
“General services does the best they can to keep them running, but this is pretty embarrassing,” he said.
The department has identified — if voters approved the half-cent sales tax — an estimated $21.2 million in capital needs just in its 260-vehicle fleet.
Magnus estimates, with a fleet-purchase discount, that it costs $50,000 to replace one patrol vehicle.
“We are now past the useful life of these vehicles and there is more money that has to be put into a failing piece of equipment than getting something new,” he said.
TPD is spending more than $3 million per year on maintenance alone, records show.
But this isn’t the only place where Magnus argues the city must spend money to maintain current levels of service.
While Magnus has identified a number of areas where the additional money could be spent, he says this is a broad outline that would be revisited in greater detail if the council votes in January to put the proposed tax increase on the May ballot.
The chief wants to spend up to $4.1 million on new equipment for officers, including replacing Tasers and ballistic vests.
While the department issues a voucher for new recruits to buy bulletproof vests, the manufacturer’s stated lifespan is five years.
Officers are responsible for replacing the vests, and Magnus admits the department’s annual stipend of roughly $200 a year isn’t enough to cover all of the equipment officers are required to maintain.
“It is pretty minimal,” he said. “It doesn’t go very far.”
The Tucson Police Foundation’s Adopt-A-Cop Program uses donations to help officers buy a new $800 vest when warranties expire.
Magnus says he would like to change the policy and have the department pay for the equipment, regardless of whether city voters approve the sales tax hike.
About half of the officers’ vests will expire in the coming fiscal year, the department estimates.
The $4.1 million figure would also go to buy an additional 300 body cameras, additional memory for the cameras as well as additional docking stations to upload video from each camera.
Other identified needs include:
- Roughly $9 million to replace patrol laptops and computers, in-car video cameras, dispatching software, support equipment and computer file storage.
- About $18 million to repair and upgrade existing police facilities, including rebuilding the public-safety training academy vehicle track.
