Electric vehicles have made some big leaps in the past few years when it comes to performance and affordability, and now more law enforcement agencies are turning to them as a viable option for patrol.
While larger law enforcement agencies in the U.S. like the Los Angeles Police Department have used electric vehicles like Tesla’s all-electric car to promote sustainable energy solutions, smaller departments are turning to the vehicles as a budget-cutting tool.
In the spring of 2019, the Bargersville Police Department in Indiana was looking to add two new police officers to its 12-officer force, but Chief Todd Bertram ran into a roadblock when his request was denied by the town council. That's when he began to look at creative ways to find savings in his budget. “I figured that I didn’t need to find a couple thousand dollars, I needed to find a hundred thousand dollars, because that’s about how much it costs for a police officer to start them out,” he says. “I started looking at my budget and the big things that stuck out were salaries and benefits, and the next highest thing was fuel. We were spending $65,000 a year on fuel.” That is when he began looking for ways to bring that number down.
Creative cost-cutting
At first, the Bargersville Police Department considered a switch to hybrids, but Bertram says that having to worry about both the gas and electric concerns posed a lot of possible issues. He decided that all-electric would be the best option and went with Tesla because of their dominance in the market. “We look at two things when we’re shopping for cars: cost and performance. For a police department, it needs to perform. It can’t be a Toyota Camry doing patrols. The braking system is not good, the power output is not good. The top speed is not good. I mean, it just won’t work. So it has to be a good performing car,” he says. “The Tesla Model S is what first caught my eye.”
While performance didn’t appear to be an issue on paper, the cost of the Tesla Model S most definitely was. Bertram ran the numbers and found that the Model S would cost the department roughly $79,000. “That wasn’t going to happen,” he says. “You weren’t going to save any money, and the whole purpose of the conversation was to save money because I needed two more officers.”
The Model 3—at around $42,000 at the time—was significantly cheaper than the Model S, but was a Tesla model that had not yet been used for patrol purposes. After researching the Model 3 online, the police chief visited his local Tesla dealership with his ASE-certified mechanic, who was skeptical at first. “Of course he’s against it because he has no idea what he’s looking at—and he gets in it and it quickly changes his mind,” says Bertram. “It’s an amazing piece of machinery. It’s quick, it’s responsive, it handles well. It’s got great stopping distance. It fit the bill performance-wise.” While the vehicle’s exterior is smaller than the Model S, he says Tesla has done a good job at managing the interior size and including ample storage space, headroom and legroom. His only complaint is that the doorway is a bit tight, which he attributes to the B pillar being moved up, which he says likely improved the vehicle’s safety rating.
Next, he took the idea to his upfitter at Passive Security Solutions in Indianapolis, who then visited the Tesla dealership and took a look at the Model 3. He told the police chief that he could do it but couldn’t guarantee how much it would cost and how long it would take. “Now the selling part was the numbers,” says Bertram. “It was number crunch time, and it was like, alright, we can buy a Dodge Charger for $25,000 or we can be a Tesla at the time it was $42,000. That’s a big difference, so where’s the savings?”
He performed a presumptive analysis for the Model 3 and estimated that the department would save about $6,000 per year with a break-even point of about 24 months. Bertram took the plan to the city council and they approved it, and the department purchased a Model 3 on Tesla’s website. At that time, they were required to put a thousand dollars down to reserve the car. About a month later they received the call saying the car was ready and they took it straight to the upfitter. “He sent me a picture of the inside about three hours after having it in his shop—the brand-new $40,000 car we just bought and gave to this guy and my reputation is on the line—and it was gutted. “He says ‘Everything is fine, don’t worry. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is not funny,’ ” recalls Bertram. The vehicle was in the shop for about a month. “We got it back, and it was amazing. He did a great job.”
Shortly after the Bargersville Police Department purchased its first Model 3, an officer was involved in a crash that totaled his Dodge Durango. The insurance company wrote the department a check for $35,000 and they used that money to buy another Tesla Model 3. “It kind of snowballed from there,” says Bertram. “We have five now.” This year, the department plans to present the idea of purchasing a Model Y, which costs about $10,00 more than the Model 3, but includes more features.
First department’s Tesla Model 3 cost them around $42,000 and the upfitting the vehicle was around $11,000. The latest Model 3 cost the department around $38,500 and the upfitting was between $8 to $10 thousand since they now know what parts they need.
The department still has seven traditional patrol vehicles including Dodge Durangos, trucks and the department’s one remaining Dodge Charger.
Reduced maintenance
This past August marked one year since the department’s first Model 3 had been on the street working patrol for a year. It had just over 20,000 miles on it and the only thing that had been done to it was tires. When it comes to normal performing normal the maintenance that traditional patrol car would undergo, Bertram says that is the great thing about Teslas. “There’s nothing. Literally the only thing we’ve done is put tires on it. That’s it. There’s no oil changes, there’s no fluid changes, there’s no nothing. You charge it and put tires on it.” Tesla says that under normal driving, you shouldn’t need to replace the brake system in five years, but Bargersville is not using it as a normal driver, but as police car. “We know at some point we’re going to need brakes,” says Bertram. “I took it in for an inspection at Tesla at its year and the brakes were still at 89%. Even at police use, it was 89%”
As previously stated, Bertram originally presumed that they would save about $6,000 per year. It turns out they saved around $64,000 per year per car. In 2018 the department spent $60,000 in fuel. The 2021 budget only calls for $25,000 in fuel costs.
Bertram said that Tesla now has a division dedicated to assisting law enforcement with engineering, software and a lot of other things. “I have a direct link now to Tesla where I can say, ‘Hey, is there any way we can leave the headlights on when I tell them to stay on?’ and then they can put that in a software update, and it fixes that problem.”
One of the main concerns when it comes to switching to an all-electric vehicle is the necessity to charge the battery. The projected range on a full charge from the factory on the first Model 3 the town of Bargersville received was 230 miles before a software update soon after gave them an increase to 250 miles. The new Model 3s can now go up to 263 miles before needing to be charged. These estimates are of course for perfect conditions, which is not typically what officers on the street encounter.
“Our shifts are 12-hour shifts. We typically drive 80 to 120 miles a shift, depending on how busy we are. It’s funny, but if you’re busy, you actually drive less. If you’re not busy, you’re actually driving around more and doing a little more preventative maintenance,” Bertram says. In the spring, summer and fall, he says they can go about their entire shift without charging it, but that when it comes to the winter, it would be pushing the car’s limit to go the entire shift without charging it. He instructs the officers driving the Teslas to charge them whenever they are at the station doing paperwork. Even if it’s only on the charger for an hour, he says the battery can gain back 20 to 30 percent.
“The rule is the same on the gas cars; keep it above a half tank. Same thing with the Tesla, keep it above 50%. You never know when it’s going to hit the fan and you’re going to need that 50%.”
Some surprises
Bertram said that the vehicles surprisingly handle well in winter weather. “We have a rear-wheel drive car, and I was worried about that, because we get some snow in Indiana. Last year we got some snow and we only had the one Tesla. I was off that day and the car was assigned to me. I made sure I got out in it. I was astounded with how well this car does in the snow. The old two-wheel drive Dodge Chargers or Crown Vics that we used to have in law enforcement, they were awful in the snow. I’m thinking ‘This is a two-wheel drive car, it’s a rear-wheel drive car, it’s probably going to be just as bad.’ ”
Instant fix software to the motor instantly takes power away from that wheel, whereas in a traditional vehicle, the sensors communicate with the ABS brakes and it goes from electronic to mechanical. The Tesla does not. “This instantly stops the slide,” he says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Bertram also says that storage space hasn’t been an issue. Havis now makes a console for the Tesla, which has made it easier upfit the vehicle. In the trunk, he says they were able to mount two electronic gun safes and it still has room for the officers’ gear. It also has a front truck that allows officers to store other equipment including medical kits. “It’s really great to have a whole separate section to be able to store stuff,” he says.
Gauging success
Bargersville was recently able to hire two new officers, bringing the department to a total of 14 officers. “I kept my word, they kept their's,” Bertram says about his pact with the town council. He says that he has been working with multiple law enforcement agencies and has fielded hundreds of phone calls from departments interested in adding a Tesla to their fleet.
In November 2020, the Fremont, California Police Department—which is located in Tesla’s back yard—released the results of one of the nation’s first Electric Patrol Vehicle Pilot Programs that tested a Tesla Model S electric vehicle customized for patrol operations from March 2019 to March 2020. Officials found that the vehicle “exceeded performance and operational objectives, withstood the rigors of police use requiring minimal maintenance and is cost-effective when factoring in overall cost of vehicle with maintenance and fuel savings.”
When it comes to performance, the city found that the Model S met or exceeded its expectations. The 265-mile range of the Tesla easily accommodated the 40-70 mile range that patrol vehicles drove on average per day. “The final results from the one-year Electric Patrol Vehicle Pilot Program have been encouraging as the City of Fremont continues to look for cost-effective ways to help make Fremont more sustainable,” stated Fremont Police Captain Sean Washington following the release of the report. “With an average of 27 fewer days of downtime per year, a savings of $2,147 in the total annual cost of energy/fuel, maintenance, and repair, and no operational carbon dioxide emissions, the pilot program results have prompted the Fremont Police Department to move forward with plans to expand its fleet of electric patrol vehicle alternatives.”
The Fremont Police Department recently purchased a Tesla Model Y, which has a lower starting price, an increased range of over 300 miles, more rear cargo and storage space for police equipment and higher ground clearance to allow the vehicle to traverse a wide variety of terrain.
