The South Pasadena Police Department, today, became the nation's first law enforcement agency to completely replace its gasoline-powered vehicles with nonpolluting electric vehicles. The city's zero-emission police fleet of 20 new Teslas will rely on a bank of new electric vehicle chargers installed at South Pasadena City Hall. Additionally, upon completion of the final electrification project component, City Hall, the Police Station and the Fire Station buildings will be backed up by a solar powered system with battery storage adding critical power resilience in the event of an outage.

"This transition reflects the city's vision of a sustainable future based on both sound fiscal management and environmental stewardship," said South Pasadena Mayor Evelyn Zneimer.  "The City Council is fully behind this transition.  We will have a 21st Century police force that is safe, clean and saves taxpayer dollars.  We're very excited to be working with our regional and corporate partners to make this happen."

Regional air quality officials applauded the switch:

"Finishing the job of cleaning up the region's unhealthy smog and protecting our atmosphere will require wholesale adoption of vehicles that produce no emissions while driving," said South Pasadena Councilmember and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Vice Chair Michael Cacciotti. Cacciotti has been the key champion of the effort. "We have been working on this for over a decade.  We finally got it right and the future for municipalities across the country is clear.  Partnering is the way to get big ideas done.  Our city is helping to make that a reality today."

"The Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) is proud to have partnered with the City of South Pasadena on the first-of-its-kind effort to transition an entire fleet of Police cars to zero emission electric vehicles," said Larry McCallon, Chair of the MSRC and Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Highland. "The MSRC provided nearly $500,000 in Clean Transportation Funding to this clean air project, which furthers the MSRC's mission to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions from motor vehicles in the South Coast Air District."

A Law Enforcement Paradigm Shift

The move points to a new paradigm for police organizations, which traditionally have been reluctant to move from gasoline to electric vehicles due to concerns about range, potential inability to charge when the grid goes down, and worries that the technology is new and unproven. Now, that's changed.

"Switching to these vehicles offers the Police Department the opportunity to acquire a cutting-edge vehicle fleet," said South Pasadena Police Chief Brian Solinsky. "This initiative not only ensures the safest vehicles for officers and staff but also leads to substantial reductions in both fuel and maintenance costs.

"Simultaneously, this transition enhances service levels for the residents of South Pasadena by minimizing maintenance downtime commonly seen with traditional gas combustion engines."

According to City staff reports, the transition is expected to save about $4,000 a year per vehicle on energy costs, plus provide additional savings on maintenance, such as brakes, oil changes, air filters, and more. Overall, according to Solinsky, the operational cost of electric vehicles will be at least half the per-mile cost of gasoline-powered vehicles. To make the switch, Enterprise Fleet Management assisted the city in acquiring 10 Tesla Model Ys as patrol vehicles and 10 Tesla Model 3s for detective and administrative duties. The cars were up-fitted for patrol and administrative police use through Unplugged Performance's UP.FIT division.

All the vehicles have 5-star safety ratings—better than any gas vehicle available for policing which means the city's officers will be as safe as possible in the field, according to Solinsky.

 

Source: prnewswire.com

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