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A city councilman who started out against the Personal Police Vehicle program found a way to improve and accelerate it and ended up one of its most enthusiastic fans.
"It's going to be a fine program and will be higher visibility of our police cars," councilman Dewey Lawshe said of the plan in which police officers drive their police cars home every night.
Originally opposed to the program, Lawshe thought it was a good idea but was afraid the cost of adding cars to the fleet would be excessive.
"I'll be honest. I was against the PPV program from the start," he said.
Against it, that is, until he discovered a way to go ahead with the PPVs and save money at the same time.
Hearing that some cities were reconditioning police cars instead of buying new ones, Lawshe asked nearby dealerships how much they would charge to install a new engine, transmission and front seat in some of the older police cars. He was told it would be at least $6,500. Too much.
Then he heard that Gates Town & Country Chevrolet in Mishaw@ka was negotiating with South Bend police to recondition cars. "So I just took the time to go up and asked Gates to show me through this," he said.
Lawshe was so impressed with the operation and the price - $6,000 - that he came back to Warsaw and shared his information with Mayor Ernie Wiggins and police Chief Craig Allebach.
Allebach agreed to try one car, the one belonging to Ptl. David Morales. "When it came back, everybody in the department was impressed," Allebach said. "They will do whatever it takes to fix up that car. ... When you see that car again, it looks like a brand new car."
Not only does Gates use new parts on the reconditioned Chevys, it takes care of body work and includes a warranty of 50,000 miles or three years, Allebach said.
And the bottom line is that the Warsaw Police Department gets more for its money. A new police car properly equipped costs approximately $24,000, Allebach said, and the department traditionally buys four new cars per year.
Now, with the reconditioned Chevys, Warsaw police can buy three new cars each year and, with the money for the fourth, get four reconditioned.
Allebach is happy because instead of waiting another three years to fully implement the PPV program, he can start it Aug. 1.
Lawshe is happy because the city can take on a worthwhile program and save money at the same time.
"My obligation to the taxpayers is to save them money and try to make everything run as smoothly as possible with all of us working together," he said. "Now I know it's going to work - we have higher savings and we still have the visibility on the streets."
And the officers using the reconditioned cars are happy because they get to keep the bigger Chevys that they prefer (and that have been discontinued as police cars).
Morales' car had 109,000 miles on it when it was reconditioned. "It's like a new car," he said.
The second reconditioned car belongs to Ptl. Steve Rockey, who said it had 100,000 miles and had a hard time catching speeders on the highway. "The speed wasn't there, the handling wasn't there anymore," he said. "Now it's very close to being a new car. It looks good. It handles good. It runs well."
The reconditioning work took about four weeks, Rockey said, but it was time well spent in getting almost a new car for $6,000. "That's wise money spent by the city," he said.
