IMPD officer and squad car near Ladoga??

[remauto1187]

I will say I noticed this driving the car home practice within months of moving here. This is almost unheard of in Illinois. Chief or a Lieutenant maybe drive a police car home in IL. The stink in IL over it was because of the "use of taxpayer" money for the gas then the liability.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

Thanks, and is living in Marion County just for emergency availability? Do they have to notify someone if they leave the state on their day off or anything then?

The only time we have to notify anyone we are leaving the state is if we are off on sick or injured-on-duty status. Living in Marion Co is really only for taking the car home or being a member of Special Services.

 

[NapalmFTW]

Take home cars reduce crime. Officer off duty goes and does his shopping in his take home, parks it at store x. Criminal thinks about robbing store x, sees car outside, goes somewhere else.

IMHO.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

Take home cars reduce crime. Officer off duty goes and does his shopping in his take home, parks it at store x. Criminal thinks about robbing store x, sees car outside, goes somewhere else.

IMHO.

That is usually how it goes. Except for the CVS at 56th/Georgetown that had a spare police car parked outside for a couple weeks in order to prevent robberies. Someone asked if there was always an officer in the store while the car was there. They were told there wasn't and within a day the store was robbed, the car still parked outside.

 

[Vince49]

Posse?

At any family gathering (frequent) at our house there will be patrol vehicles (brother drives an SUV) from Marion County,Putnam County,IMPD,Speedway PD,and Brazill PD parked in front of the house. It usually looks like a task force gathering! We have noticed a distinct lack of crime on this block for the last forty or so years though!

 

[Indy317]

Take home cars reduce crime. Officer off duty goes and does his shopping in his take home, parks it at store x. Criminal thinks about robbing store x, sees car outside, goes somewhere else.

Take home cars don't reduce crime. That is just a sales tactic used by police unions who obviously want to keep the perk for the officers. For starters, your example clearly doesn't show a reduction in crime, only a displacement. Plus, too many police cars are broken into, but maybe those are blind criminals who don't know the vehicles are cop cars? Lastly, I've known too many instances of crime in neighborhoods where take home cars were sitting out in the officer's driveway.

The benefits of a take home car can be:
-Ability for the gov. to pay the officers less. If the cars are considered issued equipment, I believe there is no taxable financial benefit. Consider it about $2,000-$4,000 of tax-free income.

-Ability for officers to respond in mass emergencies a lot quicker. Years ago a tornado hit Indy pretty hard. I saw lots of IPD/MCSD (pre-merger) in t-shirts and shorts, most wearing just a tac vest, closing down roads and directing traffic.

-In most cases, officers will take care of an issued vehicle much better than a pool car. Pool cars will quickly become junk, as it becomes extremely time consuming for supervisors to find out who is making the car a mess, causing minor cosmetic damage, etc.. So overall consideration of such vehicles go way down, even from those officers who actually take care of the vehicle when it is under their control.

I think Indiana will likely continue to move away from take home cars. It was an additional $ perk because Indiana was more like the south in terms of wages, which were fairly low. Anymore, those larger urban and suburban districts have begun to pay a fairly decent wage. I think within the Indy metro area, there are at least ten departments that pay in the mid to upper $50Ks, and that doesn't include over-time or off-duty work. I do think that given the better pay we are seeing, it might be time for the officers to pay for their own gas if they use the vehicles for shopping, personal travel, etc..

 

[NapalmFTW]

That is usually how it goes. Except for the CVS at 56th/Georgetown that had a spare police car parked outside for a couple weeks in order to prevent robberies. Someone asked if there was always an officer in the store while the car was there. They were told there wasn't and within a day the store was robbed, the car still parked outside.

There's an LMPD car parked outside one business near where I used to work. Every day. For 6 months.

Yeah. If I noticed it, so did the criminals.

 

[bigcraig]

Take home cars don't reduce crime. That is just a sales tactic used by police unions who obviously want to keep the perk for the officers. For starters, your example clearly doesn't show a reduction in crime, only a displacement. Plus, too many police cars are broken into, but maybe those are blind criminals who don't know the vehicles are cop cars? Lastly, I've known too many instances of crime in neighborhoods where take home cars were sitting out in the officer's driveway.

The benefits of a take home car can be:
-Ability for the gov. to pay the officers less. If the cars are considered issued equipment, I believe there is no taxable financial benefit. Consider it about $2,000-$4,000 of tax-free income.

-Ability for officers to respond in mass emergencies a lot quicker. Years ago a tornado hit Indy pretty hard. I saw lots of IPD/MCSD (pre-merger) in t-shirts and shorts, most wearing just a tac vest, closing down roads and directing traffic.

-In most cases, officers will take care of an issued vehicle much better than a pool car. Pool cars will quickly become junk, as it becomes extremely time consuming for supervisors to find out who is making the car a mess, causing minor cosmetic damage, etc.. So overall consideration of such vehicles go way down, even from those officers who actually take care of the vehicle when it is under their control.

I think Indiana will likely continue to move away from take home cars. It was an additional $ perk because Indiana was more like the south in terms of wages, which were fairly low. Anymore, those larger urban and suburban districts have begun to pay a fairly decent wage. I think within the Indy metro area, there are at least ten departments that pay in the mid to upper $50Ks, and that doesn't include over-time or off-duty work. I do think that given the better pay we are seeing, it might be time for the officers to pay for their own gas if they use the vehicles for shopping, personal travel, etc..

To add to this, there is also the issue of all the equipment officers carry these days.

And lastly, if patrol cars were to be left at the "station houses", there is a sever lack of secured parking for all of them. Also, note that some officers shifts start as soon as they walk out the door and get in their issued vehicle.

Personally, I do not have a problem with take home cars, as long as it is not abused.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

To add to this, there is also the issue of all the equipment officers carry these days.

And lastly, if patrol cars were to be left at the "station houses", there is a sever lack of secured parking for all of them. Also, note that some officers shifts start as soon as they walk out the door and get in their issued vehicle.

Personally, I do not have a problem with take home cars, as long as it is not abused.

It would take me an hour to transfer all my stuff from my POV to a pool car every shift.

 

[IndyDave1776]

While a take-home car and its associated expenses may be low-hanging fruit for criticism, as Frank said, transferring gear is not practical. I prefer having this perk both for saving that hour each way of packing/unpacking and for having the officer immediately ready to go. The extreme opposite is that encountered by a missionary family of my acquaintance who worked in Lusaka, Zambia. One problem they had was that in the event of a crime, the police would protect you, but you had to go pick them up since they did not have cars. The problems should be obvious. Likewise, Frank isn't going to be much help in a significant emergency develops outside the scheduled hours if he has to drive to the station, and then start transferring his equipment, and then responding.

While I have little tolerance for malfeasance and question the paramilitary applications of police, on the other hand I consider it perfectly reasonable to supply equipment in nature and on terms that facilitate effectively carrying out the officers' duties.

 

[SMiller]

Anyone remember the Carmel cop that was driving to Terra Haute every other weekend to get his kid for visitation, someone videotaped him driving over 100mph and the media got ahold of the video, good stuff!