APPRO-2025-40 : An Appropriation from Free Cash (01-324001) in the amount of $90,000 to the Police Department (#211) for the purchase of a new cruiser.

Transcript (~7 min @ 57:08)

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▶ 56:58 Mark Garipay: I will get recommended to the full council. Um, one more for you Chief id. 1, 2, 6, 5, 1. And appropriation of free cash account. 0 1 3 2 4 dash, I'm sorry, 3 2 4 0 0 1 in the amount of 90,000 to the police department for the purchase of a new cruiser?

▶ 57:17 Speaker 1: Yes. Thank you. Uh, I will read the memo again if, uh, if you, uh, endure me again. Uh, so we'll, we are looking for $90,000 to purchase an outfit, an unmarked administrative police cruiser, to replace, uh, our oldest unmarked administrative vehicle, which is a 2013 Ford Taurus. It's has 90 1003 92, roughly 92,000 miles on it. Um, engine hours. We were unable to determine. It's got transmission issues, front end issues, and other various mechanical issues. And it's approaching 13 year olds. It's the oldest vehicle on our fleet. Numerous issues. And I just stated, uh, we also don't have a, uh, and we, we've been lacking this. We don't have a dedicated, um, uh, unmarked slash detective vehicle for a mental health detective that we created, uh, a few years ago. And part of our grant that we're on with the co, uh, co response and the clinician is to re is to do co response. And we don't even have a dedicated unmarked vehicle for them. So this would certainly help us 'cause I can shuffle around to different cars and now they will have their own if we're fortunate enough to get this administrative vehicle. Um, and not only does that mental health detective do that, he does general police work, uh, in detective work. And we've had few serious cases, and unfortunately in the last few years with, um, you know, homicide and a couple other suspicious deaths where we didn't even have enough detective vehicles in which I had to send people to various locations to do follow up investigatory work. And one of our detectives had to, he actually take his own car to get there. So this certainly helps. I've, I put some free cash requests and I believe the last two, um, budget requests that weren't, um, um, approved, uh, never got to this point, but, um, I've been trying to get, uh, uh, new vehicles. So, um, I do have quotes on file. I just also wanna note too, that, um, the vehicle that we'd be looking to get is a, is a gas powered vehicle. And, you know, currently the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources still currently exempts police vehicles from the fuel efficient vehicle policy, mostly due to market availability. The last, um, hybrid vehicle that we got for the Mark Fleet, um, it took almost a year to get it. And, uh, when I looked into getting quotes for this and another mark unit that's not in front of, um, you people today, um, there, there are no hybrids available. Um, so, um, we'd be looking for a gas powered vehicle. I just wanna let let the council member.

▶ 59:40 Speaker 5: Thank you. Council ro.

▶ 59:43 Cal Finocchiaro: Thank you, chair Carpe. Um, thanks for being here tonight and, uh, for explaining all that. I just wanted to check on two things. Do you, will it be a forward Taurus today end replacement, like a exact car, or do you, are you gonna, do you have a Car? I have, I have two quotes. Uh, we're looking at a Chevy Tahoe. Okay. Or a Ford, um, SUV. Mm-hmm. And you think that $90,000 will cover it, or do you think

▶ 1:00:08 Speaker 1: It it'll get us right there? Yeah. The, the quotes for the vehicles I have certainly are, is under 90,000. Then we have to outfit and I have quotes for that, uh, mark, you know, lights mm-hmm. You know, outfitting it. And then, you know, um, as counselor said, uh, the quote's still good, uh, but if we delay, we don't know with, uh, the changes. So I, I, 90,000 should get us right there for sure. I, we'll be good. Great. And I think an SUV is the way to go if you can do something. So thank you.

▶ 1:00:35 Speaker 5: You're welcome. Thank you, Aldi.

▶ 1:00:36 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, chief. Uh, what are the, um, qualifications or like special features that are in the card, especially that you mentioned that this would be, uh, designated for mental health, um, use in a way.

▶ 1:00:52 Speaker 1: So, I, I just wanna clarify the, he, the, the mental health detective is probably not gonna get the brand new car. Uh, it's a seniority thing. Um, and I've already had these discussions. The sergeant in charge of the detective vision, we will be cycling cars around this will, now, the mental health detective will get a different vehicle that he does not have, and someone else will get a, a different car. And quite frankly, I, I may take the car just to put, put it out there, uh, as the chief and my car will go, uh, to the detective sergeant. Mm-hmm. Okay. My car's in great shape too, so, uh, we're just shuffling vehicles around.

▶ 1:01:23 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. So the new car would be going to you for the chief fuse? Yes. And then, um, the, uh, mental health detective will take, um, you know, you'll pass, uh, another car from that is existing. Correct. Um, is there any specification, um, that has to be in that car to be used by mental health detective? No.

▶ 1:01:45 Speaker 1: No. No. Um, just your standard unmarked detective administrative vehicle? We wouldn't be transporting anybody, uh, generally in that car that would require any type of special equipment. So it, just like any other of our unmarked administrative cars, a radio, some lights, and It's about it. Okay. And

▶ 1:02:01 Maya Jamaleddine: are all the cruisers have the same features? Same.

▶ 1:02:07 Speaker 1: We, they don't, um, it's a weird question. Um, it's a weird answer I should say. 'cause they're all different. They're all different makes, we're all mismatched of, uh, we got some Chevys, we got some Fords, we got some Tauruses, we got this and that. Uh, but the general interior structure is the same. Uh, but sometimes you get, you run into things with where the radio is gonna go when, because we have to purchase a radio, certainly. And those, those are just aftermarket things that the outfitter figures out. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Vandiver.

▶ 1:02:37 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Um, with the existing, um, car that would be retired is, is there somebody that is now not having a car because of that? And, and what will happen to that vehicle when once it's replaced?

▶ 1:02:49 Speaker 1: So it, it's a little bit of semantics when I wrote that. So the replacing is replacing that, that currently the court prosecutor uses that, uses that, which is kind of good because there's not a lot of, um, basically it's, it's, we're not taking it off the road, is what I'm saying. I I'm replacing it and gonna be moving that, uh, the mental health detective may get that. Like I, we haven't fully made up our mind. So it's not replacing to take it and put it in surplus because, um, that mental health detective never had a car to begin with. So this, this extra car, other car will now suffice for every, every detective that will need a car to respond for whatever reason, will actually have a vehicle and not be without if something happens.

▶ 1:03:37 Speaker 5: Anyone else? Council Jammal for a second.

▶ 1:03:38 Maya Jamaleddine: I'll make a motion to command. We have a motion.

▶ 1:03:40 Mark Garipay: Second on the floor by Council Aldi. Seconded by Council Ro on discussion.

▶ 1:03:49 Speaker 5: Roll call.

▶ 1:03:55 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councillor Ro? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Karen Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Council Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Meley? Yes. Chair? Yes. Dear Gar Pay

▶ 1:04:11 Mark Garipay: Yes. Passes that will get recommended to the full counsel. Thank you, chief.

▶ 1:04:14 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you.