Officer Josh Wright says he’ll pay to drive his patrol car the 11 miles to his East Brainerd home if he must, because it’s more cost-effective than buying a second family car, and more importantly because he says the benefit to response time is incalculable.
“I’m not off duty to me until I roll into my garage,” said Wright, who has taken his police car home with him for most of the three-plus years he has worked for the Chattanooga Police Department.
He said other police officers think the same way.
“They’re on their way home and boom, it happens right in front of them,” he said. “They’re able to get on their radio, stop traffic with their blue lights. It doubles the cars you have on the road.”
He explained that many crimes are timed to occur during police shift changes.