Take-Home Car Dispute Ratchets Up A Notch In Fort Wayne
Take-Home Car Dispute Ratchets Up A Notch In Fort Wayne
From The News-Sentinel, April 7
Quote:
FORT WAYNE, IN – No free rides will be followed by no free work, if Fort Wayne's largest police union has its way.
In a lawsuit against the city made available Monday in Allen Superior Court, the union contends that the city should pay officers for all off-duty time handling calls in their take-home cruisers. The suit comes after the department in January began charging officers who live in Fort Wayne about $50 per month for unlimited off-duty use of cruisers and about $60 for those who live outside the city. Officers also had the option of driving their cruisers to and from their homes to work for free.
The charges, designed to save the department some $250,000 from its approximately $1.6 million annual gas budget, angered leaders of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which accused Police Chief Rusty York of violating their contract by making officers decide individually rather than in a collective union vote. The union represents about 350 of the department's approximately 450 officers. York said about 60 percent of eligible officers have agreed to pay the fees.
Association attorney Rick Beers, who wrote the suit, said it has “very little” to do with the fees, but York disagrees.
“I knew this was coming,” he said. “What this is doing, it's making it difficult for us to administratively handle the take-home-car program.”
Created in 1994, the take-home-cruiser program was designed to deter crime by making cruisers more visible, allow officers to start their shifts on the road rather than report for role call, and give officers incentive to take better care of their cars. Prior to the fees, the first 29 minutes that officers spent responding to off-duty calls in their cruisers - officers are required to respond to serious crashes and crimes or if they see a disabled motorist - were done for free.
After the fees began in January, officers could charge overtime after the first seven minutes, but Beers and Officer Shane Hopkins, association president, believe it's not enough.
Beers said unlimited use of a city car without having to pay for gas, insurance and maintenance is a “huge perk,” but “what it gives to the city is incredible.”
Officers in off-duty cruisers have found missing children, arrested bank robbery suspects and in the case of Officer Pete Mooney on Jan. 14, fatally shot bank robber Anthony W. Taylor.
Extrapolating statistics from a 1997 study by former Police Chief T. Neil Moore on the amount of calls responded to by officers in take-home cruisers, Hopkins said it now works out to the equivalent of about 47 extra officers.
Back To Top
