BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Common Council made a decision about how to deal with the city's aging fleet of police cars Tuesday afternoon. It's an issue our partners at Investigative Post have been reporting on since last summer.
The city chose to lease the new vehicles instead of buy them, and that means Buffalo residents paid for it.
Tuesday, the Buffalo Common Council approved a plan to spend $650,000 of current year budgeted funds to lease new police cars. They're looking at Ford Explorers. By leasing, the Buffalo Police Department would get 31 new SUVs within six months. As our partners at Investigative Post have reported, Buffalo police officers only have half the number of cars they need. This decision would help replenish that fleet.
The Buffalo Common Council additionally approved a bond resolution Tuesday authorizing the issuance of one-million dollars in General Improvement Bonds to finance the cost of the acquisition of twenty police vehicles.
Buffalo Common Council Member Rasheed Wyatt says this will cost the city about $1,000 more per car over the three-year lease. He also says the city can buy the cars back at about $3,500 each.
"Explain the cost-effectiveness of leasing rather than buying and how that impacts the city budget when there are financial issues happening," said 2 On Your Side’s Kelly Dudzik.
"Well, because we're going to be making lease payments, it's going to be three payments, once per year, and the fact that we need more cars, we couldn't afford to buy them outright, so it does make sense for us because we can't buy it all at bulk to make those lease payments and get those additional cars that we desperately need at this point in time," said Wyatt.
"They have real trouble right now maintaining the cars they have," explained Geoff Kelly from Investigative Post. "At the end of three years, these cars are going to be worn out, and they're going to start costing more to maintain and keep on the road than it would cost just to buy a new car."
Kelly also said the useful life of a police car is generally considered to be three years.
This option does get the city more SUVs up front, instead of buying them where they'd likely split the 31 new cars up over three years. Wyatt says the city will consider leasing instead of buying again in the future.
We don't know exactly when the new cars will be added to the fleet because they'll still have to have all of the equipment installed in them.