Police Fleet Overhaul Gets OK

The East Providence Police Department can begin to overhaul its fleet of aging and high-mileage vehicles.

The Budget Commission signed off on a vehicle-replacement plan last week that will see about $1.8 million spent on 60 vehicles by July 1 of this year.

The money for the vehicles is coming from the $60 million in asset-forfeiture cash awarded to the city by the federal Department of Justice from its Google settlement.

A five-year plan for replacing vehicles also was approved by the budget board. It calls for $1.6 million of the asset-forfeiture cash to be used for the purchase of an additional 41 vehicles by Sept. 1, 2017.

The vehicle replacement program "would take care of all the years of neglect” to a fleet of vehicles that City Manager Peter Graczykowski described as in “pretty rough shape.”

The 60 replacement vehicles will be purchased in six phases over the next four months, according to the proposal by East Providence Police Chief Joseph Tavares. All of the vehicles would be purchased by July 1 using competitive state bid list pricing.

The vehicles include five command staff vehicles: Ford Explorer XLT 4X4s; detective staff vehicles: Ford Taurus sedans, Ford Explorers and Ford Escapes; administrative staff vehicles: Ford Explorer, Ford Fusion, Chevrolet Suburban, two Ford Taurus’s, and an F-150 4x4 super cab; department support vehicles: Chevrolet K3500HD stake body truck, Chevy 3500 truck, Ford E-350/12 passenger van, Suburban 4x4 IMP, a Ford F250 prisoner transport vehicle and two Harley Davidson motorcycles; patrol, traffic vehicles: 23 Ford Crown Victorias; vice unit vehicles: 4 SUVs and a surveillance vehicle.

Thirty-six additional patrol cars then will be purchased over the next four-plus years; five command staff vehicles will be purchased by March 1, 2017.