Houston Police Department on track to get new squad cars

HOUSTON -- The Houston City Council is on track to spend nearly $7 million on 186 new squad cars for the Houston Police Department.

The cars would replace the oldest and most worn-out vehicles in the fleet. According to Assistant Chief Dan Perales, who heads fleet maintenance for the Department, the cars being replaced cost approximately half a million dollars a year to repair and keep on the road.

The City Council will vote on the purchase Wednesday, which would continue effort to replace every vehicle in the fleet approximately every five years. If the purchase goes forward, the new vehicles would be on the road by April, 2010.

“We’re still in the catch-up process from where we were,” said Gary Blankinship, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union.

Before the Department started upgrading its fleet in 2007, the majority of the 1,600 police cars on the road had more than 100,000 miles on them and were more than eight years old.

“It was dangerous,” he said. “We had a lot of cars held up for maintenance, and we’ve tried to get that turned around. We’ve made some pretty good progress.”