Dallas Police are having trouble with their cars

[TexasStooge]

DPD cars: Anything but fleet

By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8

Broken down patrol cars are keeping Dallas police off the streets. Sometimes during shift change at Southeast Patrol, the busiest substation in Dallas, some officers don't have cars to drive.

"We do have some challenges with regard to matching officers up with vehicles," Deputy Chief Floyd Simpson admitted.

Officers say at times they have dozens of calls waiting to be answered but they can't get to them.

"It's frustrating to people to have them wait three, four, five, six hours for the police and that happens on a regular basis," K.B. Foster of the Police Association said. "And it's because we don't have the cars to get people out there like we used to."

Officers said the department's fleet is getting old and replacements are slow in coming.

There are 502 patrol vehicles in Dallas, but on any given day 22 percent of them don't work.

Before 2001, squad cars were replaced at 80,000 miles, but, to save money, the city keeps extending the life cycle of the vehicles. Some vehicles in the pool are beyond 130,000 miles.

As a comparison, the city requires taxi companies to replace any cabs older than 60 months of age.

Foster said the age of the fleet discourages officers even before they turn the key. "That's the one thing we look at when we get in the car. We see how many miles it's got on it and ... we start thinking 'Am I going to be able to peruse someone in this car?'"

The city acknowledges the cars are getting old and is trying to replace them, but officers said, it's not fast enough.