These spanking new police cars are just sitting in a a yard at SW 64 Street and 87th Avenue. Maybe 150 cars. Why? Carlos Gimenez touted public safety in his State of the County speech but here we have cars idle. Rumor has it that police cars were also bought without the police package. These cars cannot be returned or used for responding. I guess they are just eye candy? Carlos Gimenez's speech:
...Public safety has always been my top priority. To enhance the work of our Miami-Dade County Police Department and build more confidence between our community and our officers, my budget for fiscal year 2015-2016 includes the hiring of 125 police officers and the deployment of 1,000 body-worn cameras for our officers. We also continue to expand our vehicle fleet and modernize our Real-Time Crime Center. Youth violence is also a key concern of mine, and the safety of every child, of every resident in this community, is our responsibility. We must work together—law enforcement and the community—to put a stop to the violence.Why didn't he mention the purchase of a couple of million dollars worth of police cars that are just sitting in a lot so neatly parked in rows, all of them there while he was giving his speech?
16 comments:
Gimenez' finest work!
Isn't that incompetence or malfeasance?
Not only the cars are sitting there, we still have officers driving rattle traps with peeling paint, rust and roaches. The cars themselves are safety hazards. The county will take a car with 100,000+ miles on it and replace the transmission or the generator multiple times. The generators they use come from the lowest bidder,so all the electronics and power needs of the cars burn them out quickly, so the replacement generator is a short term fix.
Police morale sucks. They have to deal all the crap from other cities which really does not reflect the individual officer and they to deal with the politicization of the department.
Hey don't forget Gimenez's "new classes". They aren't really doing anything for the police shortage.
If the contracted cities are short an officer they can grab one from the existing population of officers. So if a station gets 9 "new" officers a city may take 3 experienced officers leaving the new ones to the station train and deal with. Net new personnel for that station is 6. (The officer count appears static, but the city was going to grab officers whether there were new ones available or not, the station was going to be down 3 people.)
Then along comes a federal grant which the county will use to pay the salaries of officers and so another 4 experienced officers are moved into specialized units out of district with 4 brand new inexperienced officers replacing the movees. Net new personnel for that station is now down to 2.(The county is going to grab 4 officers for the grant coverage whether there were new ones available or not, the station was going to be down 7 people without the new graduates)
And finally, along comes retirement and the end of a drop period. There goes 3 officers with 20 years and 2 officers with 25 years and 30 years, respectively. Other than the county residents have now lost experience and knowledge, the station now is at a net -3 officers for the new graduating class. The station without the graduated class members would be at -12 officers, so yes, the new class helped, but did not resolve much. The community is still short much needed protection.
It is a shell game. We are not creating additional police coverage, we are moving employees around and still not keeping up with retirement.
They should at least be using them as dummy cop cars. Just last month our area commander of the upper east side told our housing association that he had trouble getting a dummy car or two to use.
Those cars are not sitting. They are not equipped to go.... they are missing light bars, probably cages and most definitely decals.
They need to hire or contract enough people to finish them out.
PS: the truck on the right looks to have an open gas tank, it may be missing gas!!!!
Please allow for some clarification, as these vehicles are parked here temporarily for an important purpose. This is part of a process to replace aging vehicles for our MDPD officers to stay safe and keep our community safe. There is a well coordinated plan in place where 60-70 new vehicles are delivered each month, and are staged here temporarily while they get prepared for the road - installation of radios, new tags and registration, application of signage, and more. To date, 334 new vehicles have been delivered to MDPD and the rest of the vehicles remain on schedule.
Well, Gen, It looks like someone in the mayor's Office is reading your blogs. Congratulations on being on the watch list :)
Disband the take home vehicle program. Then there will plenty of cars for patrol.
disbanding the take home vehicle program only produces dirtier and less maintained/safe cars because they are driven 24 hours a day 7 days week... then will have real junk for our police to drive. At least the officers now have time to take them in for regular maintenance and they make sure they are washed and cleaned - that doesn't happen with pool cars.
You clearly haven't seen some of the newer assigned cars. The officers don't even keep them clean. Maybe time for the take home program to go.
I have watched an officer down the street wash his numerous times, and it wasn't a new one. If they are not clean, a supervisor needs to be checking the condition. I will guarantee you if you drive a car that hauls prisoners you are going to clean it. You don't want smell the smell or breathe in what is left behind. Lysol is your friend.
Another car-gate under Gimenez. The last one was around 2012 where it had been discovered that a hundred plus cars were rotting away, just like these. Gimenez is a mess.
Inside sources have said that the decals they bought are defective. Delivering excellence everyday
Btw those cars are leased monthly as they sit unused.
How much is the police department paying to GSA to park these vehicles in the lot? Why didn't the vehicles come with lights already installed on them? Why isn't the county buying vehicles from the state sheriff's contract? GSA and ITSD all have their hand in some kind of surcharge added to the cost of these vehicles. The vehicles don't come equipped because that would add to the purchase cost. Instead the accessories such as lights and radios are budgeted elsewhere. The county makes good money (from county departments) fixing old cars when you add the GSA costs attached to those repairs. Nobody is willing to deal with the real issue which is the MILLIONS of dollars of tax revenue that is siphoned from critical public safety services to support the 111 building.
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