Monday, Aug. 4, 2003 | 10:53 a.m.
Henderson's police chief says he disagreed with the conclusions of the city's Finance Department on using sport utility vehicles as patrol cars and decided to purchase 37 more Chevy Tahoes despite warnings about their safety.
The May 2001 report said the police should stop using the Tahoes because most of the SUVs are not designed for high-speed pursuits, which means the city could be found negligent if one were involved in an accident that seriously injured an officer.
But Police Chief Michael Mayberry said with his officers involved in only 16 pursuits in the last 17 months, the argument against using the SUVs isn't as strong as his case for using the Tahoes.
The Tahoes give officers more space for equipment and for the officers themselves, Mayberry said.
Those were the original reasons the Police Department first started adding the SUVs to their fleet in 1999. The City Council asked the Finance Department to evaluate the reasons, as well as price, in the 2001 report.
The report found that the space issue could be addressed by storing more equipment out of the vehicles. As for comfort, it cited a study done by the Michigan State Police Department that rated the Tahoes lower in ergonomic factors than the Ford Crown Victoria sedans that had dominated the city's patrol fleet. A cost analysis showed little difference.
"We took the finance report seriously and considered their input. But we determined that experts within the Police Department were better prepared to make this decision than a financial analyst," Mayberry said.
The chief said the officers' equipment packs the trunks of their Crown Victorias tightly and weighs the patrol cars down so much that the backs of the cars hit the road when they go over bumps.
Officer Jose Montoya, a Metro spokesman, said sometimes the Crown Victorias they use, packed with similar equipment, will bottom out too.
In addition, Mayberry said, though the Tahoes are two-wheel drive, the SUVs are higher off the ground, which makes them better at driving through desert, construction sites and flooded areas.
Henderson elected leaders and the city manager said they left the decision to the chief.
"Irrespective of what the Finance Department says, if the police department says this is what is needed ... that is who ought to be advising us," Mayor Jim Gibson said.
Gibson said there may have been more discussion if the SUVs were a lot more expensive.
The Henderson Police Department has bought 105 Tahoes since 1999. Only the first 29, which were purchased in 1999, are designated as pursuit-certified by the manufacturer. Those Tahoes are lower to the ground and have tougher suspension and brakes, a General Motors official said.
The patrol division is made up of 31 Ford Crown Victorias and 78 Tahoes, including 19 purchased earlier this year, which are gradually being put into service as they are outfitted with equipment such as light bars and sirens, a police spokesman said.
Other police agencies in the Las Vegas Valley use SUVs in their patrol fleet too, but mostly for special assignments, such as for canine officers, or for supervisors who carry extra equipment, such as battering rams.
Most departments in the valley, and nationwide, use the Crown Victorias as their primary patrol vehicle. A Ford spokeswoman said about 85 percent of police vehicles in the United States are Crown Victorias.
The chief, who was not available for comment when the report was released, did not dispute the concern that most of the department's Tahoes are not built for high-speed chases. But Mayberry said he was not overly concerned about this factor because his officers do not engage in many pursuits.
"We have very few," he said. "Our pursuit policy is very restrictive."
Mayberry said Henderson police were involved in 11 pursuits in 2002 and five pursuits so far this year.
Metro police, who serve about six times the population of Henderson, were involved in 240 pursuits during the 12-month period from July 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002, Montoya said. Metro Police pursuit policies were revised earlier this year in an effort to reduce the number of chase-related crashes, but newer figures on Metro pursuits were not available.
North Las Vegas police, who serve a population of about 135,000 compared with about 206,000 in Henderson, have had about five times the number of pursuits so far this year. North Las Vegas police have been involved in 27 pursuits since Jan. 1, North Las Vegas Police Sgt. Frank DeMartino said.
Boulder City, population 15,000, has had no police pursuits this year, Boulder City Police Lt. William Brown said.
The Finance Department report focused on the potential danger to the officers driving the SUVs and the city's liability for having them drive the Tahoes.
"A serious disability claim made by an officer through an injury may easily be substantiated and show that the city was negligent in allowing the officers to use the Tahoe as a patrol vehicle," the report said.
Studies have shown that SUVs are generally more likely to roll over than cars, because they are higher off the ground and have a higher center of gravity.
But Mayberry said that none of the accidents involving the department's Tahoes have been design-related.
He said he did not know how many accidents the Tahoes have been in, but only one involved a roll-over, and it involved a pursuit-certified Tahoe, which are designed for more stability.
Mayberry said any vehicle would have rolled over in that April 27 accident in which, according to a police spokesman, the police Tahoe rolled after it went skidding sideways into a curb.
Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said that while she could not comment on that specific accident, she hasn't heard of one of the sedans rolling over in a similar accident. Crown Victorias rarely roll over, she said.
Bruce Wiley, General Motors program manager for law enforcement and specialty vehicles, said Tahoes that are not pursuit-certified are not suited for high-speed police chases.
"It's just like a warning label on a toy," Wiley said. "We think it's not a good idea to do that."
But while the Finance Department report focused on the safety of the officers driving the Tahoes, Mayberry said he also considered the safety of those who may be in accidents with the SUVs before making his decision.
"Because we give our officers a lot of driving training and our pursuit is very restrictive," it wasn't a deciding factor, he said.
Russ Rader, a spokesman for the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said that SUVs are likely to inflict more damage on vehicles in a collision because the SUVs are heavier and typically have parts, such as bumpers, that sit higher than on cars.
Tim Hurd, spokesman for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, said the damage caused by a Tahoe colliding into a passenger car would be substantially more than a Crown Victoria collision because the Tahoe is about 1,300 pounds heavier than the sedan.
According to a June 2003 study by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the increasing number of light trucks and vans, including SUVs, is leading to an increase in the number of fatalities to people in passenger cars who are involved in collisions.
"After taking all things into consideration we decided this use of the Chevy Tahoes is the best way, the safest way to police this community," Mayberry said.
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