Ringgold is adopting a Police Assigned Vehicle Program for eligible city police officers, allowing them to take their squad cars home with them.
Councilman Larry Black, a law enforcement officer himself, proposed the idea to the City Council.
“I strongly believe in our police department,” he said.
Black’s motion to approve the policy was unanimously approved by the council.
According to Black, the Ringgold Police Department has eight officers and one opening to be filled. To be eligible for the program, an officer must live within 5 miles of the city.
“The city maintains insurance on the officers’ vehicles,” said Black. “The city pays for the vehicle gas. The officer can drive the vehicle to and from work or to and from training or to and from court appearances.”
Officers enrolled in the assigned vehicle program must call the dispatcher when departing for work and when returning home, he added.
Black noted that Police Chief Dan Bilbrey can suspend the program for any officer violating a policy.
“This is something commonly done in law enforcement today,” Black said of allowing officers to take patrol cars home. “It’s also been proven that communities feel comfortable having a marked patrol car. Many times in an emergency people have gone to a home to try to get a police officer to help them. Also the reason I introduced the program is we want to retain talent in the program. We want this as part of the benefits package so officers will want to stay employed long-term with the city of Ringgold.”
He added that a major benefit of take-home cars for police officers will be felt citywide through improved response times.
“If traffic is diverted due to a major accident where I-75 is blocked and traffic is diverted into Ringgold, then the police chief has that option to call more people to work,” he said as an example. “If we have a crime scene such as a shooting with multiple officers needing to go there it allows the chief the option to call additional people to work.”
Up until this point, said Black, police officers had to drive their personal car to work. After finding out which vehicle was assigned to them for that shift, they had to make sure it was serviced.
Routine vehicle maintenance will now be their personal responsibility.
“Once the police officer has completed training, if the officer is not on suspension or a part-time employee, then they are eligible to be assigned a uniform marked patrol vehicle to take to their residence,” he said.
According to Black, Ringgold is one of the last departments in the area to assign vehicles. The Fort Oglethorpe Police Department, Dalton Police Department and Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office all have the program.
“I’ve been very fortunate. I had an assigned vehicle through the state of Georgia, the Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force, the city of Fort Oglethorpe and a number of years as a detective for Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office,” said Black. “We will evaluate the program a year from now to see how cost effective it is. The program can be stopped at any time by the police chief. It will be a good thing for the city. It has been a long time coming.”
Email Katie Ward at kward@timesfreepress.com.