UNDER THE HOOD

Seguin’s NEW Police Cruisers

There’s more than meets the eye

Story & Photos by Rushton Skinner

If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t a whole lot of police sedans running around anymore. All over the U.S., bigger SUVs have replaced the passenger cars of bygone eras in favor of more room and versatility. Look anywhere and you’ll see a myriad of truck-sized vehicles owning the lanes. Some argue not everyone who buys one of these behemoths needs all that room, but for Seguin’s Police Department, the switch from small to large is a sign of the times.

This switch in fleet vehicles happens every 15 years or so, with the latest update replacing the Ford Crown Victoria with the Chevrolet Tahoe. A completely different make and model offers a clean slate for new changes to be implemented, fixing problems that existed with previous fleet generations. But this time, there isn’t just a new car, it’s an entirely different class of vehicle that doesn’t only benefit the police department, but Seguin as a whole.

So far, the change has been met with success, according to Seguin Police Officer Justin Mendoza.

“It’s a general all-purpose vehicle –– dirt roads, streets, going off-road sometimes,” he said. “They’re just great. A lot better than the Crown Vics, I think.”

Conventionally, going up in size means moving up in weight, which can make a car top-heavy and less stable. But with new technology, many of these problems are mitigated. “There are no issues with them being top-heavy at all,” Officer Mendoza explained. “You would think that since it’s a vehicle with a higher center of gravity, it would be worse, but it’s not.”

Not only do the new Tahoes not suffer from size, but they also handle better.

“They have great get up and go, they’re low to the ground,” Seguin Police Sgt. Bruno Cavasos said. “At the driving schools that we go to, the instructor will make a better time in this than they can in the Crown Vic.”

Of course, the new Tahoe that law enforcement uses is not readily available to the public. Just as in the past, these vehicles are heavily upgraded from stock.

“They’re high-performance cars,” Cavasos said. “They’ve got a bigger and better

transmission, bigger engine, they’re a little bit lower than a regu- lar SUV for handling. Everything is beefed up on them because they know that they’re going to be, for lack of a better word, abused.”

As for solving past problems, the new platform supported a full redesign for safety and cost-saving measures.

“In the Crown Vics, you always had cloth or leather seats,” Officer Mendoza said. “These are a lot differ- ent. These seats are basically made to where you can hose them down if you need to.”

Detainees also have well thought out safety features. Seatbelts run oppo- site to assist in detaining a passenger; there are rear seat partitions to prevent contact and barred windows protect against damage.

“We had a big issue with the Crown Vics before we had the bars,” Mendoza said. “Detainees were kick- ing out windows, and it was very expensive. They would actually break the door frame.”

The new Tahoe has resulted in a better, more versatile driving experi- ence, and it has streamlined the way officers do their jobs. Each and every part of the vehicle has been thought out so that a single officer can do 99% of their job alone. This optimization for efficienty allows more officers to be in the field, indirectly saving taxpayers money.

New tech and a unique point of view go a long way. However, the most significant difference may be the most looked over, and the most cost-effec- tive. Seguin, like most departments across the nation, owned their fleet.

At the end of the vehicle’s life, the car would be auctioned off at a considerable loss.

This recently changed when the Seguin Police Department began leasing their patrol cars instead of owning them outright. There is now a fouryear lease on each vehicle. This allows the department to simply turn in the cars once the time is up, instead of keeping them for many years and thousands of more miles. This keeps law enforcement in new, technologically advanced cars with taxpayers not covering the depreciation.

Gone are the days of old school sedans and multi-cop teams dishing out justice all over the city. Today, modern technology aids local police in covering a wide area efficiently and effectively. The benefits of new technology affect everyone, and it’s only going to get better.