The Cookeville Police Department wants to purchase seven new police vehicles in the upcoming fiscal year.
Cookeville Police Chief Scott Winfree said a few police cars are cycled out every year, and the decommissioned cars are sometimes assigned to other departments in the city. Winfree said this year, two marked cars, three detective vehicles, and two administrative cars will be replaced. Winfree said police cars are typically decommissioned after 100,000 miles of use.
“Every once in awhile, you know, we may get a vehicle that just has a lot of mechanical problems,” Winfree said. “You may have one that’s been wrecked, you know, been involved in a crash, but generally speaking, we try to get 100,000 miles out of all of our vehicles.”
Winfree said the seven new police cars will likely be SUVs, so officers enough space to carry their equipment. Winfree said the department tries to have spare vehicles on hand in case there are issues with the primary fleet.
Winfree said the 100,000-mile lifespan is determined by the way officers use the vehicles. Winfree said marked vehicles are “pursuit rated” with stronger equipment than civilian cars.
“Their brakes tend to be a little heavier duty, the alternators in them tend to be heavier duty due to all the electronics within the vehicle,” Winfree said. “The suspension may be a bit tighter, but a lot of it’s electrical because of all the lights and sirens and radios that we have to run within the vehicles.”
Winfree said it is common for the city to bring in around seven vehicles per year, and Cookeville has done so for the last 15 years.
“That has kept this fleet very strong and the mileage reasonable,” Winfree said.
