By LEE NOBLE, Herald Bulletin
As rising gas prices in recent years are pumping many consumers dry, local law enforcement agencies have had to adjust to keep patrol cars from running on empty.
While the Anderson Police Department reformed its gas tactics drastically in 2004, the Madison County Sheriff's Department, with a much smaller force, is making adjustments to scale.
At some point in time, both departments have acquired more efficient vehicles to reduce gas consumption and monitor gas use by their patrol officers.
Anderson police Maj. Dale Koons, who manages most of the force's finances, said APD paid 99 cents per gallon (they get an institutional discount) at the end of 2003. Now, its rate hovers around $2.50 a gallon.
"We started preparations in 2004, anticipating that fuel was going to be an issue we were gong to have to live with for some time to come," Koons said.
Today, the Police Department uses an automatic mileage tracking system and an identification monitor to keep patrols from sapping its gas budgets. Officers pull into the city garage, enter their ID number and mileage and the pump is unlocked for their fill-up. If the system senses some inconsistencies, like a tampered odometer reading, then it will lock the pump until the officer gets the issue resolved.
When it began using this system at the outset of 2004, the department guzzled upwards of 69,000 gallons of fuel monthly, Koons said. By the end of 2005 its monthly gas consumption had dropped to 59,000, and so far in 2006, the department's rate is around 55,000, according to Koons' records.
He said the method was effective right away. APD also reduced the number of take-home vehicles by reassessing which were prudent for such use, and which not.
The Sheriff's Department has made a similar move, asking its patrol officers to keep tight watch of their odometer readings during rounds, or to do stationary patrols, where an officer would park his car in a busy centralized area and monitor his surroundings as well as radio calls.
Capt. Rick Garrett keeps track in large part of the Sheriff's Department's patrol fleet. He said they have 40 vehicles, and that includes detectives, transport vehicles, patrol cars and more.
Estimated monthly gas consumption stands somewhere around 6,000 gallons per month, or around 200 a day. That figure stood at around 300 gallons a day five years ago.
Garrett said the department currently pays $2.39 a gallon, because it doesn't have to pay federal gas taxes, or the sales tax, just a state tax.
To avoid misuse or overuse of the county's gas, officers have to call into dispatch to have the pump turned on when they need fuel, said Sheriff's Department Maj. Ron Richardson. Once they are OK'd, they file paperwork through a slew of supervisors for approval.
Despite the added precautions, Garrett said his well appears to be running dry.
"We're running low on gas money in the gas budget," he said. "We're getting ready to ask for more at the next county council meeting."
And the captain said the shortage is not for want of effort. The department purchased 6-cylinder Dodge Intrepids a few years ago in order to cut its gas consumption, but recently had to update some of its fleet to 8-cylinder Ford Crown Victorias because Dodge discontinued the Intrepid line.
"I can see the gas consumption going up because of that change in the cars," Garrett said; however, some of the older Intrepids are still in commission.
When asked whether the sheriff had considered reducing the number of take home cars in the budget, he said it was out of the question.
The department doesn't plan on trimming off cars from the department's patrols because, with more than 450 square miles of county to cover and 22 patrol cars split between three shifts, they need every advantage they can keep, he said.
"It's added visibility and safety for the community," he said. "We still have to be out there to be available for our citizens."
In addition to more stringent gas regulations, the department is trying other ways to reduce its use. It is getting laptops for many of the patrol vehicles so that deputies can file reports from the field and save the time and gas that would be used in transit.
When a car is off duty, deputies are prohibited from using it outside the county lines and have even been asked to throw some cash in the pot.
"What we've asked them to do is to consider putting gas in out of their own pockets," Richardson said. That way, he explained, they might be more self-conscious about how their driving affects county spending.