The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department finds itself looking for a couple new vehicles, following an accident involving one of its squad cars. “I guess the bad news is, of course, we’ve crashed another car,” Sheriff Jeff Richwine told the Pulaski County Commissioners Monday. “And this one’s totaled. So we’ll be looking to try to find a way to fund another car.”
He added that the officer involved was not injured in the crash. “He’s the newest deputy, I guess, and he’s just not familiar with the road, doesn’t know there’s a jog there and it straightens out the road, and winds up in the ditch, and the car is totaled,” Richwine explained. He said the county still has enough police cars, but now lacks a spare.
Meanwhile, the department’s jail van is reaching the end of its useful life. “Our jail van’s a 2004,” he told the commissioners. “This thing goes all over the state transporting prisoners. It’s getting close to, I think, 160, 170 thousand miles, so we’ll need to look at that. We’ve got some estimates on that.”
To pay for the vehicles, Richwine plans to borrow money out of his department’s commissary fund. “The van would come from Dobson’s out here, and then, you know, we get such a good deal on police vehicles,” he said. “I’ve got one of those located, and they told me they would hold it for 15 days. So it’s on a 15-day hold, and if I can get it all together, then we can do that.”
The Pulaski County Commissioners approved the purchase Monday. The county council will have the final say, next week.
