W.Va. PD gets 5 new vehicles from grant

By Greg Jordan
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Law enforcement work puts a lot of wear and tear on a police department’s expensive cruisers, so receiving five new vehicles at no cost is welcome news for the city of Bluefield.

A $50,000 USDA grant and a $100,000 private donation have provided five new 2016 Ford Explorers to the Bluefield Police Department at no cost to the city, Sgt. J.D. Vance said Friday. The new vehicles are equipped with what is called the 2016 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Package.

“We picked them up and we took them where they needed to go, and when we got them back they were ready to roll,” Vance said.

The new additions have allowed the department to weed out older vehicles with high mileage, giving the department a total of 16 cruisers. Police vehicles are constantly in use.

“Most of the time they run 24/7, 365 days a year, especially when you’ve got the bare minimum of cars,” Vance stated.

An Explorer fitted with a police interceptor package has advantages that Explorers available to the general public don’t possess.

“It’s usually a little more horsepower and a more beefy suspension,” Vance said. “It’s made for taking tight turns and stuff like that; the suspension is made for taking sharp turns at a higher rate of speed than usual. They’re not your normal, everyday driving vehicle.”

Many of the older cruisers didn’t have these technological advantages. Other new features include light bars that are mounted across the windshield instead of the roof.

“With the older roof-mounted light bar, you had to drill a hole through the roof to run the wire, but with these, you don’t have to,” Vance said. “It goes right where the visors are and faces out.”

The big “Police” logos on the vehicles’ sides make them unmistakable. They’re made of the reflecting vinyl used for road signs. When headlights hit the logos, the bright reflection makes the cruisers very easy to see at night.

“This is at no cost to the city, which is a good thing,” Vance said. “A lot of cities are raising taxes and all that to pay for the equipment they need. It (grant and donation) not only helps us, it helps the city.”

The donor was anonymous, Vance said.

Copyright 2016 the Bluefield Daily Telegraph