HANCOCK COUNTY — The work never stops for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department — nor for the man who keeps its cars running.
“Every day, something breaks on a car,” said Fred Bixler, the logistics and fleet manager for the sheriff’s department. “…Some of them have lingered longer than they should have.”
Because of a nationwide shortage of some car parts, along with other factors, the sheriff’s department is seeking a solution that will allow it to make up for a shortage of police vehicles by leasing or purchasing up to 20 cars in 2022.
Sheriff Brad Burkhart recently told the Hancock County Council that the department would need an appropriation of about $800,000 to purchase the cars outright. However, he said, the department could reach an agreement with car rental company Enterprise to lease the cars instead.
Burkhart said his allotted budget of $250,000 for vehicles in 2022 could cover the leasing costs of existing cars as well as new cars if an arrangement with Enterprise can be reached.
Last year, the sheriff’s department began leasing patrol cars from Enterprise; it had already been leasing the cars driven by detectives. Leasing cars instead of purchasing them, Burkhart said, is cheaper because it allows the county to avoid the repair expenses that come with older vehicles and pay a smaller amount per month.
“The idea is to move them quicker,” Burkhart said.
The sheriff’s department wanted to lease 15 cars, mostly 2021 Chevrolet Tahoes, from Enterprise in 2021. Because of supply chain problems, those haven’t arrived; Burkhart said some of the cars might be available in October. Either way, he said, Enterprise doesn’t have the available police cars to meet the department’s needs in 2022.
A shortage of semiconductor chips has led to delays in car production industry-wide, which also means fewer used cars are reaching the market. The shortage primarily has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the United States’ trade war with China. Some car companies have stockpiled many partially finished vehicles, waiting for chips to complete their assembly.
The sheriff’s department typically acquires six to seven cars each year, Burkhart said, but has fallen short because of a number of factors, including unexpected engine failures, not purchasing any new vehicles in 2020 because of COVID-19 and because of an influx of new deputies.
Because of those issues, the department has been keeping cars longer and running up mileage more than Burkhart would like.
“That plan that we had kind of goes awry a little,” he said.
The department’s fleet currently consists of 73 vehicles, including primarily patrol and investigation cars as well as some specialized vehicles like ATVs that are used for rescue operations, and SWAT vehicles.
The warranties for most cars, Bixler said, expire when the vehicle has about 60,000 miles on it. The department currently has some cars on the road that have close to 150,000 miles. He said he does frequent repairs and sometimes swaps parts from cars that aren’t working to keep others running.
“We’ve got kind of a boneyard lot east of the jail” for cars that aren’t operational, Bixler said.
The department has often purchased cars from Kelly Chevrolet in Fort Wayne, a bulk seller of police cars, which does have 20 extra cars that could be available for Hancock County. Burkhart said those cars represent an opportunity that might not come again in the near future because of rising prices of materials and generally low availability of police cars for purchase.
Burkhart would like to make a deal with Enterprise in which the car rental company could purchase the cars, then lease them to Hancock County, allowing the sheriff’s department to pay a lower amount per month for the fleet.
“I don’t know if I can make that happen or not,” Burkhart said.
Historically, Burkhart said, the department has never purchased or leased such a high number of cars at the same time.
The sheriff’s department could also receive a potentially large amount of funding from the county’s Redevelopment Commission in 2022. The commission has classified such projects as infrastructure expenses, which can be paid for with money from tax-increment financing districts.
The county council granted permission for the sheriff to place a hold on the 20 cars available at Kelly Chevrolet to be purchased by either the county or by Enterprise, pending Burkhart’s arrangement with the rental car company.
Greenfield Police Department Deputy Chief Chuck McMichael said GPD is also facing issues caused by the new-car shortage. The department ordered four new police cars in April, but hasn’t received any of them.
The department is waiting on three 2021 Dodge Durangos from Fletcher Chrysler Dodge in Franklin and one 2021 Ford Expedition from Larkin Greenewood Ford in Connersville.
As government agencies, police departments have little choice about where they can get their vehicles and are obligated to purchase them from the seller offering the lowest bid.
McMichael said the department ordered the new cars to replace vehicles that were approaching 100,000 miles, so officers are still driving the older vehicles.
“Everybody that we have has a vehicle,” McMichael said.
The GPD does not rent cars and owns all of the vehicles in its fleet.
McCordsville Police Department Assistant Chief Jim Bell said the department plans to order a few new police cars for 2022 if the town’s budget allows for it, but said the department’s supplier, Community Ford Lincoln of Bloomington, has said it will be able to provide them.
“Everything seems OK, at least for us,” Bell said.