Using Electric Cars For Some Of The Police Force

Unfortunately, the idea of driving an EV for some police officers seem to go contrary to their preconceived image. After all, a police officers inspire strength and force, something most feel EVs do not represent yet. Maybe Tesla Motors should allow police stations over the country to drive a Roadster and see what serious torque and speed an EV can deliver. While I don’t see long high-speed chase happen yet with EVs, some on the police force would do just fine with an electric car.

Fleets, Police, Parking Enforcement and Street Sweeping. It isn’t hard to see how cities could save a lot on its gas budget and how crucial it is when most are in dire economic situations. How many times do you see a big V8 sedan or pickup truck enforcing parking rules? How often do you see those same cars idling minutes on end, further wasting expensive gas away?

Parking enforcement makes the most sense. Their route is well contained making the demanded range a reality. The stop and go driving these vehicles are used to is ideal for electric car. Battery packs would not be overly stressed and operation costs would be cut down. Light urban police cars could also easily be switched to beefier EVs. Street sweeping day with their myriad of pickup trucks and heavy sedans dishing out tickets to forgetful car owners could save much money by switching over to electricity.

EV Perceptions. There are more solutions than technical obstacles, the problem is with preconceived notions. Many startups have designed well thought out EVs perfect for city driving that would cut down on maintenance and energy cost. The problem is that many officers don’t feel electric cars are serious looking enough. This is really a shame because I don’t think many of us fear the parking enforcement officer. We have different feelings towards parking tickets, annoyance is one of them but fear isn’t.

In the end, it will take some time before the police force warms up to electric cars. As technology progresses and range increases, electric cars will make more and more sense for cash strapped cities. As petroleum price keeps its ever rising trend, cities are starting to look for more intelligent solutions, using electric cars is one way to bring down costs. As usual, all of this relies on a one brick at a time to build a wall scenario. Cities, police officers and everyone involved need to be better educated and understand that electric cars make sense. Electric cars save energy, use home made electricity and could help not raise taxes when cities run out of cash.