Blaine to spend up to $200,000 for cop cars

Blaine City Council approved spending up to $200,000 to purchase five refurbished police cars at a May 14 council meeting.

The new cars will replace existing vehicles with interior mold and mildew, steering issues, engine noise, fading paint and possible fire risks, according to memo documents. Five police cars and two other vehicles no longer used will be declared surplus and sold at auction.

Funds will come from the city’s sale of 2.28 acres of its former airport property to Chuckanut Bay Foods for $396,644.

Interim police chief Michael Knapp recommended that the city purchase five cars as soon as possible at a finance committee meeting on April 19, saying five of the police department’s 14 patrol vehicles are currently “unserviceable.”

A Crown Victoria police car, due to be replaced. Photo by Oliver Lazenby

Councilmember Alicia Rule asked what police officers are driving now, given that five cars need to be replaced. Knapp wasn’t at the meeting to explain to councilmembers why five cars need to be immediately replaced.

“It’s my impression that one car is always in the shop,” said city manager Dave Wilbrecht. “There’s always a car breaking down and they cycle through.”

The cars being replaced have mileage ranging from 100,000 to 135,000, with most over 120,000, said city finance director Jeffrey Lazenby. The vehicles are Ford Crown Victorias that are no longer being produced, dating from 2000 to 2005.

Lazenby said new police vehicles can cost as much as $80,000. The city expects to spend between $30,000 and $40,000 on each refurbished vehicle.

Blaine police officer Skylar Deffinbaugh, who’s currently managing the department’s vehicle fleet, said in a phone interview that the department would likely buy refurbished Ford Utility Interceptors. The refurbished vehicles will be 2014 models or later, have 60-70,000 miles on them and last three-to-five years.

“This is seen as a catch-up plan, more or less,” Deffinbaugh said. “These are not vehicles we’ll have for 10 years, but they’ll get us to a higher operational level.”

An example of a Ford Utility Interceptor.

The police department currently has 10 primary patrol vehicles and four secondary vehicles. At any given time, officers are using between six and eight vehicles, Deffinbaugh said.

“It has been difficult. We’ve done a shuffle the best we can to keep things going,” he said.