Springs P.D. cutting down on vehicles

Posted: Mar 3, 2010 3:36 PM by Matt Stafford
Updated: Mar 3, 2010 3:36 PM

Colorado Springs Police say the size of their fleet of vehicles is coming down.

They started looking into the size and management of their fleet after questions from the media.

Results from the findings are prompting the force to cut about 70 vehicles by the end of 2010 from the number they had at the end of 2009.

Budget constraints also add to the problem. In 2004, the fleet budget was nearly $1.4 million, however now it's around $360,000.

When will the budget start heading the other direction? Administrators say they'll have to wait and see.

"We have to be very, very careful with the money we spend," Says Deputy Chief Pete Carey, Colorado Springs Police. "We're trying to make our cars last a lot longer and go a lot further. I anticipate that we're going to see some lean years for the next three or four years regarding our fleet and what we can buy for cars."

Springs Police won't be buying many new cars, but when they do they're mainly looking at 2 types, "marked" and "unmarked" vehicles.

They say the focus for a while will be "marked" cars, and they don't plan on buying any unmarked cars for a while. That decision is mainly for visibility purposes at emergency scenes.