Sheriff’s department wants to buy 5 more police pickups

You might have noticed some police cars are being replaced by pickup trucks by area law enforcement agencies and wondered why?

Yesterday, the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department brought a request to the County Commissioners to seek bids to purchase five full-sized pickup trucks. Commissioner Tony London asked Captain Brandon Slate why the request was not for more police cars.

Slate said that the county had been buying Dodge Chargers with a V6 engine and had problems with those cars about 7 years ago. For several years after that, the department was able to purchase a police package Charger which included a V8 engine and all-wheel drive but that is no longer available.

Now, the only vehicles that meet the police needs are the pickups, which come with the bigger engine, higher towing capacity, lots of storage space for gear and four wheel drive. Plus the cost was only a few hundred dollars more than a sedan.

Slate said the trucks have cost around $27,000 each.

The Bartholomew County Commissioners agreed to seek bids for the new police vehicles.