SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Some law enforcement officers in the San Francisco Bay Area are running into problems with the new electric squad cars they've been assigned by their agencies.
A Thursday profile of northern California police chiefs in three cities by SFGATE revealed that the cars- introduced in the last year- are being met with widespread opposition from the officers tasked with using them.
Ukiah, California police Chief Cedric Crook described acquiring a fleet of two Tesla vehicles for his small-town agency in 2022, reacting to a directive from the Ukiah City Council that the city would use “city fleet vehicles, light-and-heavy-duty trucks, and other mobile equipment, where feasible, with models that run fully on electricity or green hydrogen.”
However, Crook soon discovered flaws in the use of Tesla vehicles for police work, going so far as to say he was "not ready to put an officer in a Tesla." Instead, the vehicles are being used for department administrative officials, rather than frontline law enforcement personnel. However, his agency did spend $35,000 in modifications for the two vehicles in order to make their more suitable for police use.
The slim profile of the Tesla vehicles is posing a challenge for officers who need to exit the cars while wearing a duty belt- a problem serious enough that one law enforcement official described “making it nearly unusable.” Other problems include the vehicle's lack of an engine block- a design feature that contradicts with law enforcement training recommending taking cover behind a car's engine block in the case of a firefight, potentially leaving officers exposed to hostile fire from criminals.
The streamlined design of the Teslas left officers only able to transport a single prisoner as a detainee in the vehicles- a fact of their design that forced the police department to resort to using more resources for fewer suspects. Calls that would have been otherwise adaquately handled by a gasoline-fueled vehicles took multiple responding officers.
The cars weren't without their merits. A study from the Menlo Park Police Department concluded that officers “appreciated the acceleration, steering and vehicle speed compared to the hybrids and remaining gasoline-only patrol vehicles," while clarifying that “the Tesla presented challenges due to the small interior space, ‘smart car’ features, and low vehicle profile limiting maneuverability (e.g., jumping curbs, off-road use).”
Chief David Norris clarified that his agency could find eventual use for electric vehicles as patrol vehicles- with the condition that the cars would be manufactured by a company with a vested experience in designing law enforcement vehicles.
“We don’t want to buy things off the retail market and turn them into a police car. The shiny thing is the car; you have to have the charging infrastructure.”
A Thursday profile of northern California police chiefs in three cities by SFGATE revealed that the cars- introduced in the last year- are being met with widespread opposition from the officers tasked with using them.
Ukiah, California police Chief Cedric Crook described acquiring a fleet of two Tesla vehicles for his small-town agency in 2022, reacting to a directive from the Ukiah City Council that the city would use “city fleet vehicles, light-and-heavy-duty trucks, and other mobile equipment, where feasible, with models that run fully on electricity or green hydrogen.”
However, Crook soon discovered flaws in the use of Tesla vehicles for police work, going so far as to say he was "not ready to put an officer in a Tesla." Instead, the vehicles are being used for department administrative officials, rather than frontline law enforcement personnel. However, his agency did spend $35,000 in modifications for the two vehicles in order to make their more suitable for police use.
The slim profile of the Tesla vehicles is posing a challenge for officers who need to exit the cars while wearing a duty belt- a problem serious enough that one law enforcement official described “making it nearly unusable.” Other problems include the vehicle's lack of an engine block- a design feature that contradicts with law enforcement training recommending taking cover behind a car's engine block in the case of a firefight, potentially leaving officers exposed to hostile fire from criminals.
The streamlined design of the Teslas left officers only able to transport a single prisoner as a detainee in the vehicles- a fact of their design that forced the police department to resort to using more resources for fewer suspects. Calls that would have been otherwise adaquately handled by a gasoline-fueled vehicles took multiple responding officers.
The cars weren't without their merits. A study from the Menlo Park Police Department concluded that officers “appreciated the acceleration, steering and vehicle speed compared to the hybrids and remaining gasoline-only patrol vehicles," while clarifying that “the Tesla presented challenges due to the small interior space, ‘smart car’ features, and low vehicle profile limiting maneuverability (e.g., jumping curbs, off-road use).”
Chief David Norris clarified that his agency could find eventual use for electric vehicles as patrol vehicles- with the condition that the cars would be manufactured by a company with a vested experience in designing law enforcement vehicles.
“We don’t want to buy things off the retail market and turn them into a police car. The shiny thing is the car; you have to have the charging infrastructure.”
For corrections or revisions, click here.
The opinions reflected in this article are not necessarily the opinions of LET
Comments