By Jill King Greenwood
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH, Penn. — Relief is on the way for Pittsburgh police officers who have contended with a beleaguered vehicle fleet for months.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in the spring revealed a $9.1 million plan to purchase new vehicles for departments citywide, including 109 police cars. But the vehicles have not yet hit the streets.
About 40 have been delivered and are being outfitted with lights, sirens, laptop computers and police insignia. Chief Nate Harper hopes to roll them out in about a week.
Dozens more vehicles -- marked and unmarked -- are coming, Harper said.
“It’s a dire situation, and I know that,” Harper said. “I just ask the men and women of the police department to be patient. Cars are on the way.”
Ideally, the police bureau should have about 300 vehicles, including cruisers, unmarked detective cars, wagons and motorcycles, said city Public Safety Director Michael Huss. Fewer than 200 vehicles are in service now because dozens are at the city garage for maintenance and repairs.
At the North Side police headquarters, detectives are piling five at a time into unmarked cars to get to court dates Downtown, and many said there aren’t enough vehicles available for them to leave the building to investigate cases or talk to witnesses. At one point last week, the 19-detective burglary squad had two vehicles available.
The city’s zone stations also are dealing with a dearth of vehicles, often borrowing from the SWAT team and other units.
Statistics provided by Harper show:
In the Zone 1 station in the North Side, 35 percent of the marked cruisers are out of service for repairs, and none of the station’s unmarked cars is in operating condition. At the Zone 2 station in the Hill District, 66 percent of the patrol cruisers are available, and 50 percent of the unmarked units are ready for use.
The Zone 3 station in the South Side has less than 50 percent of the marked patrol cruisers in service, and 47 percent of the marked units in the Zone 5 station in East Liberty are in the garage for repairs.
The two zones faring the best are the Zone 6 station in the West End, where 75 percent of marked cars are in service and the Zone 4 station in Squirrel Hill, where 73 percent of the patrol cruisers are operating.
The new vehicles -- including 72 police cars, 30 motorcycles and 7 wagons -- were ordered in April, Huss said. The vehicles had to be built before being shipped here to be outfitted with police equipment, he said.
The $9.1 million vehicle purchase is the largest ever for the city, said mayoral spokeswoman Joanna Doven. The money came from state sources, the 1 percent county add-on to the sales tax, a federal development grant and city coffers.
Huss said the city also is trying to make up for years when no new police vehicles were purchased. One problem with maintaining the fleet is that the vehicles are driven 24 hours a day and by numerous different officers, Harper said.
“Our cars are driven fast and hard and constantly,” Harper said. “It’s not like a car that just gets taken to the store or to work. We are hard on these cars.”
Huss said the city is aiming to have 315 police vehicles available by the end of the year.
“Ideally, that number will help cover when we have vehicles out for repair and maintenance,” Huss said. “We have taken this problem very seriously.”
Copyright 2008 Tribune Review Publishing Company