The next time you get pulled over by a Guilford County Sheriff’s Department deputy, you might notice that the officer’s ride is a little extra shiny. That’s because the Guilford County Board of Commissioners just approved the purchase – at $1 million and change – of 22 new department vehicles, including pickup trucks, pursuit vehicles and utility vehicles.
If you think you put wear and tear on your family car – well, law enforcement agencies typically do so a lot faster than average because, in that job, there can be a good deal of quick acceleration and sudden stopping – not to mention cornering at high speeds. Also, the vehicles must be highly reliable, so the department and the county like to try to keep the fleet as fresh as limited finances allow.
In the just approved purchase, the county commissioners gave the OK to the acquisition of a Ford F-250 Pickup, a F-150 Pickup, a Chevrolet Silverado 1500, a Dodge Durango pursuit vehicle, four Ford cargo vans and 14 Ford Interceptor Utility all-wheel-drive vehicles.
The total cost was $1,000,345, with the bulk of that being $692,160 for the 14 Ford Interceptors. Those cost just over $48,000 each.
That $1-million price tag also includes about $50,000 for prisoner transport cells for three vans.
The purchases are being made from Asheville Ford Lincoln, Modern Chevrolet of Winston-Salem, Piedmont Truck Center Inc., Performance Ford of Clinton and Performance Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Clinton.
At a recent staff meeting with several county commissioners, Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing said this represents the annual purchase of the department’s vehicles for fiscal year 2019-2020,
“All of these are replacement vehicles,” Lawing said.
“A problem is that Dodge has shut down the plant that manufactures the Chargers, so they can’t get Chargers,” he added, “so they are looking at using the Ford Interceptor Utilities, which is an Explorer, basically, instead of that.”
Lawing also said that some of the autos are made to order so those wouldn’t be in service right away.
“Next year’s budget may not include many or any vehicles the way things are looking,” Lawing said.
Nothing more than money collectors with a costume, now with faster vehicles to give more tickets quicker. And, enforcing unconstitutional orders from the Governor. “Just doing my job”.
Maybe they can help with contact tracing to manage the 99.9% CV recovery rate that turned the whole world upside down. Because what really needs to be done is finding the infected population and drag them out of their homes and put them in FEMA camps. Kinda like what China was/is doing. To serve and protect right? Thanks guys!!
Great point about the unconstitutional orders from the governor. At Nuremburg after WW2, the world decided that “following orders” is not a defense for your conduct. several people were hung who claimed that they were “just doing my job”. Is there a day of reckoning coming after the virus scam dies?
Just curious – why is Guiford County purchasing from a dealer outside of Guilford County?
Why don’t you get their attention by sending your next tax payment to another county or state?
I work at Green Ford as the Fleet Manager and have not seen a bid request since BJ was Sherrif
Because Dean Green was a major contributor to BJ Barnes and the Republican Party?
This cost doesn’t include lettering and outfitting the electronic stuff in the cars so the price is a bit more than posted.
Once again Guilford county has a sheriff’s office. Not a sheriff department.
This has kind of been eating at me – so, I sent an inquiry to the county. I suspect that perhaps the funds, or perhaps a significant portion thereof, came from the state. Just a though.
Yep – got a very nice response from GCS Dept – they purchase most of their vehicles through state contract; whenever possible, they purchase local when vehicles don’t fall under that contract.
Will they keep using Dodge Chargers?