The Corbin Police Department has added two new vehicles to its fleet as the first of six Dodge Durango SUVs have arrived.
Officers had the new vehicles, which replaced two of its Dodge Chargers, on the road Monday.
Chief Rusty Hedrick said while the department has filled out its fleet with Dodge Chargers, some of them have exceeded 150,000 miles.
“Mileage and idle time is so much more than a standard civilian vehicle,” Hedrick pointed out.
The new vehicles come fully equipped with the exception of radios and radar.
The radios and radar will be removed from the old cruisers for use in the new vehicles.
Hedrick said the four other Durangos are in the process of being shipped to L&W Outfitters in Lawrenceburg.
The cost of the new vehicles was included in the department’s $2.756 million budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
“We could probably use a couple of more, but these six give us a big relief,” Hedrick said explaining that several in the current fleet were needing more and more maintenance.
With the cruiser situation resolved, Hedrick said the next items on the department’s wish list are new in car computers.
“The day of hand writing tickets and reports is coming to an end,” Hedrick said adding the computers speed up the process substantially.
Hedrick previously estimated that to update all the computers would cost approximately $20,000.
