Cost of police rigs zooms as city eyes capital requests

Like the fire department, the Columbia Falls police department has also seen costs rise exponentially over the past few years. Just three years ago, the city budgeted about $52,000 to replace and outfit a patrol car, Chief Clint Peters said.

This year, they’re budgeting $73,000, if they can even get the vehicle they want.

The force has five patrol vehicles, but they’re not all the same make and model. Some are SUVs, two are pickups and the fifth, the newest — a Dodge Charger. Gone are the days of the standard Ford Crown Victoria.

For awhile there, they used Ford Explorers, but they didn’t last long and upkeep and maintenance was costing $20,000 a year. The city then changed to Dodge Durangos and the cost to maintain them has been about $15,000 a year.

The force likes the Dodge 1500 pickups, but the price has gone up and they’re hard to get, thus the recent purchase of the Charger.

The rigs are equipped with computers and also have about $6,500 in cameras that have built-in wifi and 74 hours of footage that police can go back and examine if need be.

Patrolmen also have bodycams that can sync with the patrol car footage, Peters said. All other footage can then be emailed to attorneys associated with the case. It cuts the use of paperwork and thumb drives substantially, Peters said.

The patrol car cameras start recording if the lights are turned on, the car goes faster than 75 mph, there’s a crash or the patrolman manually hits record.

The department is also looking at upgrades to the police station — putting in a wall of cross-laminated timbers with security windows so that people being booked are separate from victims, which isn’t always the case now.

The wall with associated hardware is expected to cost about $30,000.

The department also uses a building to store stolen or recovered items, like bicycles or vehicles. The brown shed, as it’s known, has seen better days, as it was originally a workshop for builder Leonard Knudson years ago and was a body shop before that. While it is functional, it’s also been home to critters over years that like to burrow under it — skunks, rabbits and raccoons.

Peters and city manager Susan Nicosia gave a report to council last week to shine a light on the capital needs of the department as they contemplate future budgeting.