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Small police departments get bargain-priced cars By WENDY SIPOREN Three police departments around the Rogue Valley are benefitting from high crime rates in the Las Vegas area. Talent, Phoenix and Shady Cove police departments recently purchased five cars being retired from the Las Vegas police fleet for a total of $19,500. Previously, the Phoenix Police Department's newest car was a 1992 Chevy with 130,000 miles on it. So when Chief Bob Kershaw heard that he could buy two fully equipped police cars for $10,000, it was a deal he just couldn't pass up. "I don't know if we could have found cars of this quality at that price," said Kershaw. He had just $9,000 in his budget to buy one car but wound up with a 1996 Chevy Caprice and a 1993 Ford Crown Victoria. The Las Vegas Police Department retires its vehicles after five years or 70,000 miles, whichever comes first. Both of of the cars Phoenix bought had less than 58,000 miles on them. Talent Police Chief C.W. Smith first heard about the bargains from one of his reserve officers who has ties to the Las Vegas area. Talent was able to buy two 1995 Ford Crown Victorias for just $7,000, adding them to their aging four-car fleet. News of the good deals soon spread to Shady Cove, where Chief Jim Johnson had $2,500 to spare in a reserve fund. With those funds, he was able to buy a 1993 Crown Victoria and retire the department's 1987 Chevy Caprice. Despite the $260 in shipping costs, Johnson said, "It was a steal." Fully funded police departments buy new vehicles every few years, as Medford, Central Point and Ashland do. Some buy used vehicles from local dealers and then add police equipment. The state also has a fleet program where departments may lease a police vehicle for a couple hundred dollars a month plus 13 cents a mile, as does Shady Cove. After budget cutbacks from a string of state property tax limitations and several bond measure failures, some of the smaller departments were scrambling for equipment. Phoenix hadn't purchased a vehicle for five years. "It's a real shot in the arm for the smaller agencies like ours," said Kershaw. In the end, though, the best used car deal of all was negotiated by Smith: the Central Point Police Department sold him a 1992 Chevy Caprice for only $1. "I was over there pleading and begging because we had just had a car break down," said Smith. "They did us a favor." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA