A local businessman has a possible solution to a significant issue that continues to vex the Chattanooga City Council. Tom Getz, owner of the Little Caesar’s Pizza franchise here, says he wants to sponsor a police car and to pay the mileage for the officer who drives it from home to work and back. It is an extremely generous — if novel — offer, but one that city officials should reject with thanks.
The offer, apparently proffered with no strings attached, comes in response to Chattanooga’s new policy that charges police officers who take their patron cars home 20 cents a mile if they reside inside the city limits or 30 cents a mile if they live outside its corporate limits The city ended the long-time policy of allowing officers to take home their cruisers because of cost. The policy became effective last week.
Getz’s offer of sponsorship would cover the costs associated with a take-home car for one officer, but he hopes his officer encourages other business owners to do the same. Some might follow his lead, but it would take many similar offers of adoption, so to speak, to make a dent in the problem. Well over 200 officers have chosen to park their vehicles at the end of their shifts rather than pay the new assessment.
The council ended the take-home-car policy because it saves money. That’s true in the short term. The city will save money, but the value of police cruisers on the roads and in neighborhoods should be measured in ways other than the monetary bottom line.
Police cars are a clear deterrent to criminal activity and to traffic scofflaws. Off-duty officers in take-home cars often respond to emergencies and to reports of crime. Take-home cars also promote morale in a department in which the policy correctly is viewed as privilege given by the city to officers in the past instead of pay raises. It’s hard to put a value on all that, but it is considerable.