MYRTLE BEACH S.C. — It’s been nearly a year since the Myrtle Beach Police department launched a take-home vehicle policy for its officers, and officials say it’s worked exactly as hoped.
Lt. Paul Morrell said the program that began in December has cut down on maintenance costs. In the past, some vehicles would run 24 hours a day as they were shared between shifts.
“Now with an individual officer operate being the only operator of the car, it’s probably taken the usage of the car down by like 70%,” he said. “It would have a longer shelf life in our fleet and the maintenance costs over the life of the car would be a lot lower,” he said.
Right now, about half of the department’s fleet are take-home vehicles — a number that will increase as newer models are introduced.
“We’re trying to be responsible with our funding. So we’re not constantly buying cars over and over and over again. We’re putting the money upfront to buy a number of cars so they’re lasting longer,” Morrell said.
With 64 of the department’s vehicles now being used as take-homes, Morrell said residents could see nearly quadruple the number cruisers on duty.