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Councilman: Parking Police Cars 'Insane'
Councilman Says City's Safety To Suffer
POSTED: 6:16 pm CDT July 22,
2008
UPDATED: 7:30 pm CDT July 22,
2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- At least one Metro councilman is upset over the loss of 134 Metro police vehicles that are to be parked.Councilman Michael Craddock said safety could be one of the casualties of the city’s budget battle.Police Chief Ronal Serpas and every other city department were instructed by Mayor Karl Dean to reduce its fleet size by 10 percent.The decision on which cars to mark was left up to individual precincts. The parked cars include about 40 school resource officer vehicles, detective cars, patrol cars, SWAT and K-9 vehicles.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said each precinct chose cars it felt would not have a huge impact on safety.Craddock said he doesn’t understand why dozens of cars used to fight crime are sitting in a parking lot by the airport while some administrators are keeping their cars. Craddock said he’s specifically talking about the police department’s chief financial officer getting to keep her vehicle."Gee whiz, we’ve got civilians in the police department taking cars home at night at $4 a gallon for gas, and here sits 134 Metro police cars. That’s insane," Craddock said."In the case of the chief financial officer, she oversees the police department’s hiring, recruiting, human resources. She has a variety of responsibilities to take her outside of police headquarters day after day after day," Aaron said.School resource officers will have at least one marked car at all Metro high schools. In some cases, officers will have to use their personal vehicles to get to school.The police department will be getting about 90 new police cars in September. The new cars were budgeted before the new fiscal year.The department at that time will reassess its fleet situation and maybe make adjustments.
Previous Stories:
- June 2, 2008: Metro Shrinks Car Fleet To Save Fuel
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