Police Departments Go Green by Way of Electric Vehicles

Anyone who has ever watched the smash-hit television show Cops has heard the theme song "Bad Boys." You know, "Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do? Watch gonna do when they come for you?" Well watcha gonna do when they come for you; and you can't even hear them coming? While that is not the main reason that many police departments are converting to a greener fleet of vehicles by way of electric, it is a nice bonus.

Police departments, like everyone else these days, are feeling the pinch of a very bitter economy and are having to look at ways to better budget themselves. While the Ford Crown Victorias, Chevy Impalas and Chevy Tahoes will always be needed for certain jobs that the police do, they are not needed for all of the jobs that the police have to tackle on a daily basis. Enter electric vehicles.

Taking one Crown Victoria out of service can save a police department an estimated $4000 to $5000 a year in fuel expenses. Again these vehicles will always be needed for higher speed chases and thing of that sort, but they are not needed for the more mundane tasks of say patrolling a park or checking the parking meters. Now, more than ever, some police departments are turning to Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) to accomplish these tasks. NEVs are smaller and can maneuver through crowded or congested areas with greater ease than that of the traditional police cruiser. And as mentioned before, they carry the advantage of not only being eco-friendly, but extremely quite as well (source: greencar.com).

But the implementation of going green is not stopping there. Police departments in Sacramento California, Providence Rhode Island, New York and even in London are testing out a new electric scooter called the Vercix. The Vercix is the first of its kind and is touted as a "total performance scooter." The various police departments are using the Vercix for many of the jobs that the regular gasoline powered motorcycles currently do (source: greencar.com). While they may not replace the motorcycles all together, it is a good start.

The future of street patrolling may also be going electric; or at least hybrid. Currently the police over in Kanagawa Prefecture Japan are already implementing such technology with the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (which is actually an all-electric car). Here in the United States, the Wayne State University police in Michigan use a hybrid Mercedes A Class F-Cell Vehicle for some of their patrolling (source: greencar.com).

With the implementation of the technology already available today and the promise of future technology to come, it is not inconceivable to think that one day the police could be running an almost all-green fleet. If and when this happens, crime better keep a good ear out as they will not be able to hear the electric vehicles coming. Good for the earth and bad for crime; sounds like the perfect scenario to me.