The Cobb County Police Department is a step closer to implementing a take-home vehicle program for patrol officers — a move that commanders believe will make the community safer, help the department retain officers and begin to resolve manpower shortages during some shift changes.
Commissioners earlier this week approved $3 million for the program, which will allow the department to purchase 63 vehicles. Police Chief John Houser said he hopes the vehicles will be delivered before the end of the year.
“The program is about efficiency,” Houser said. “We’ve seen during major events that the availability of cars can be limited. So we feel this will make us much more efficient. And it will increase the visibility of our police presence in the county, which will make the community much safer.”
It’s unclear how many take-home vehicles will be in use when the program is fully implemented in three years. The county will advance the $3 million to the department. That money ultimately will be taken from the $12.3 million for vehicles and equipment earmarked from the 2016 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
The department plans to purchase 200 new vehicles from the SPLOST money.
Establishing the program was a point of contention between the department and county political leadership for years.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in February 2014 that Houser and former Public Safety Director Jack Forsythe had been requesting the program, along with other investments in the department, for two years without the county’s political leadership taking action. Forsythe eventually resigned in frustration over the lack of action.
Two days after a contentious interview with the AJC for the February 2014 story, Commission Chairman Tim Lee announced that commissioners would approve 40 new police officer positions. The commission decided later to fund the take-home vehicle program through the SPLOST.
In a police officer survey from 2014, rank-and-file officers voiced common complaints about driving vehicles with more than 150,000 miles that break down frequently and waiting hours for patrol cars because of inefficient shift change operations. A majority blamed the problems on commissioners and County Manager David Hankerson.
“The vehicle situation is atrocious,” one officer wrote on the survey. “It is not uncommon for half the officers on a shift to wait … 45 minutes to two hours … on a vehicle.”
Commanders think the take-home vehicles will help solve the problems at shift change.
Billy Mull, a retired officer who is president of the Cobb Fraternal Order of Police, with its 500 members, said the program is important to improve morale at the department and retain officers. Cobb Police have been losing officers at a high rate, often to smaller departments that provide better pay and benefits.
“This is a big deal, it’s probably more important to officers than salaries right now,” Mull said. “Other agencies, large to small, already have this program. So we’re trying to catch up with them.”
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