Sweet Home’s latest patrol vehicle offers a new look for the Police Department’s fleet with the addition of a new Dodge Durango about a month ago as part of SHPD’s normal rotation.
City police have used Ford Interceptors since buying their first one in 2013, but this year that vehicle is unavailable.
“The Fords are out of production,” said Police Chief Jeff Lynn. “We really wanted to try to stay in an SUV.”
Fortunately, when Ford took its Interceptor out of production for product modifications, Lynn said, the Dodge Durango became available.
Other law enforcement agencies had been been using it, and Sweet Home police decided to give it a try, Lynn said.
“The nice thing about it is it’s less expensive. To this point, I think the officers that are driving it are happy with it.”
One of the major differences is that the gear shift lever is on the console, Lynn said, but otherwise, the specifications are similar to the Ford.
“If it works out, we’d love to be able to stick with the SUVs,” Lynn said. “There’s more room for the officers and their equipment.”
But, he said, “we had no complaints about the Charger.”
At this point, the department has just one Charger left. It’s driven by the school resource officer. The sergeants and the canine unit use a Chevrolet Tahoe, which was a donation for the canine program from Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.
The sergeants’ vehicle serves as an incident command vehicle. The police chief drives an unmarked 2013 Ford Interceptor SUV.