FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association) - The men and women of the Fort Wayne Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) would like to thank the citizens of Fort Wayne for their long standing support of our department and their support of the current take-home car program. The officers of the PBA understand the plight of so many overburdened taxed payers. With the rising costs of fuel, food, healthcare and everything else coupled with the increasing sales tax, lower wages and continuous wasteful government spending, it is no wonder citizens skepticism of the government is growing. American taxpayers have a right and a civil obligation to question and hold accountable the public figures they pay and the programs they implement.

One of these programs employed by the Fort Wayne Police Department being questioned is the take-home car program. The PBA understands the citizens concerns and wish to take a few moments to fully explain the take-home car program including its tax saving benefits to the citizens and also dispel any falsehoods regarding the program.

A major concern of many citizens is the residency of the officers using the take-home cars. Many citizens are under the false assumption that the majority of officers live in other cities (i.e. Leo, New Haven, Grabill, etc.) or in other counties. This is not true. The department has approximately 420 officers, which qualify for the take-home car program. Three Hundred Forty Eight (348) officers live within Fort Wayne city limits. This accounts for 82.8% of take-home vehicles being parked inside the city limits. The vast majority of officers live within the outer suburbs of Fort Wayne or in additions just outside its boundaries. These are exact police districts where staffing levels are dangerously low. The district of Aboite (K-district), the district north of Cook Road (A-district), and the district east of Maplecrest Road (G-district) are routinely staffed with a single officer per shift. The vast majority of officer’s present in these tax-paying districts are off-duty officers. By removing the take-home cars, officer presence in these areas would be drastically reduced and crime would eventually increase.

Citizens also complain that officers are using their vehicles to go to the bank, grocery store, etc. Although this is true (and the businesses always appreciate the presence of a police vehicle) the officers are always listening to their radio and responding to calls for service, which is required by policy. The PBA has kept statistics over the years in regards to the take-home cars. Off-duty officers while driving in their take-home vehicles has accounted for an average of 295 hours of work per month (which is unpaid and free to the citizens). This includes simple responses, such as assisting other officers, conduction traffic stops, assisting stranded citizens and working traffic accidents, to more serious calls for service, such as; catching armed robbers, rendering emergency aid to injured motorists and stopping drunk drivers. Over the years officers have solved and apprehended suspects in every imaginable crime while off-duty.

Another misconception of the public is the cost the city pays for fuel. The city discounted bulk rate for gasoline is often forty to fifty cents per gallon less than the normal rate. The June 2008 rate the city is paying is $3.61 per gallon. Although the rate is much higher than the rate of a few years ago it is cheaper than the $4.19 rate at the corner gas stations. Within the past years officers have taken many proactive measures to cut back on gasoline usage and have made self initiated cuts in off-duty driving. This has resulted in the department coming in $40,000 under gas budged for 2007. Our current budget is also projected to come in under budget.

One must also look at the many problems departments without take-home vehicles face. With the ever-growing list of needed police equipment officers can average 20-30 minutes a day loading and unloading their equipment from their personal car to the fleet vehicle. This wasted time would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. With a take-home car all of our equipment is already stored in our vehicle. Police work has also evolved much over the past years. A vast majority of officers are on a specialized on-call unit (i.e. Emergency Response Team, Fatal Traffic Team, Critical Response Team, Bomb Tech, Homicide Detective, Public Information Officer, etc.) These are specialized highly trained and educated officers whose quick response is often a matter of life or death. The extra time needed to drive from our house to the station, load our equipment and then respond to the emergency would comprise any investigation and could have deadly consequences.

In addition, fleet vehicles are often run 24 hours a day, are poorly maintained and last 2-3 years compared to the 8-10 years the average take-home vehicle can last. Accident rates on departments without take-home vehicles are also higher than departments with take-home vehicles. This is do to the extra care and familiarity one has with driving the same car every day.

The Fort Wayne Police Department staffing level is another concern of the PBA. The staffing level is well below the national average and far below the recommended rate suggested by the International Association of Police Chiefs (IAPC) of 2.5 officers per 1000 citizens. (According to their recommendations Fort Wayne Should employ 620 sworn officers.) Comparing the top five cities in Indiana, Fort Wayne is well understaffed and cannot afford to eliminate the take-home program.

City	2006 Population	Officers	Officers per 1000 Citizens
Indianapolis	785,597	1740	2.21
Fort Wayne	248,637	460	1.85
Evansville	115,738	285	2.46
South Bend	104,905	261	2.88
Gary	97,715	296	2.88

With the ever-increasing size of Fort Wayne and the steadily increasing crime rate and gang activity, street level officers are far too often over-worked. We are on a current pace to top 205,000 calls for service this year. This far exceeds the 189,000 calls for service in 2007 and 184,500 in 2006. Our department needs more officers and eliminating the take-home car program would require even more.

The PBA does sympathize with the over-taxed citizens of Fort Wayne and we are willing to make sacrifices to help alleviate the problem. The PBA has presented many suggestions to the Chief and we are diligently working to come up with a compromise which helps keep our fuel consumption down and save taxpayers money without sacrificing officer safety or sacrificing service to the citizens of Fort Wayne. Again we thank all the citizens for your loyal support and hope we have helped clarify any confusion or misconceptions about the program and our stance.

---