In South Pasadena, new police cars are patrolling crime and reducing emissions at the same time.
The South Pasadena Police Service unveiled on Monday what the City says it is the country's first electric police fleet, sporting 10 Tesla Model YS for patrol and 10 models 3 for detectives and administrators.
The city will pay $ 1.85 million in total for the electrified fleet, officials said officials in a press release. More than half of the project costs are covered by several partners who have agreed to build electric vehicle chargers managed by the city.
“This transition reflects the city's vision of a sustainable future, based on both healthy budget management and environmental management,” said Mayor Evelyn Zneimer in the press release. “We will have a 21st century police force that is safe, clean and saves taxpayers' dollars.”
The new zero emission police vehicles will allow the city to allow the city by more than $ 400,000 in gas and maintenance costs over 10 years, according to The Electrify South Pasadena website.
A comparison of the fuel costs listed of $ 4,355 per year for a Ford Patrol gas vehicle against $ 336 per year to charge a Tesla Model Y, according to a Staff report of September 2022.
The fluctuating cost of gas could affect city savings, the South Pasadena police sergeant. Tony Abdalla said. A planned saving of $ 312,282 over 10 years was calculated using the prices of gasoline in September 2022, which were $ 5.27 Gallon in California, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The gas prices have dropped the Gallon at $ 4.47 this month since then.
Fuel savings are not the only advantage of zero emission vehicles.
The 2022 report presenting the plan to the municipal council cited “significant maintenance and reliability problems” associated with the petrol fleet.
A police vehicle powered by gas overheated during a prosecution. Another was out of service due to a blown head gasket. Another still had electrical and braking problems. Two had air conditioning problems, one with a note that the air conditioning of the vehicle was “insufficient” for the K9 assigned to it.
South Pasadena police have been planning for years to replace the fleet of 22 vehicles, six of which were out of service. “We were looking for a creative solution,” said Abdalla.
The department turned to the other 35 police services in the country who had added electric vehicles to see if All All Electric was possible. However, no other agency had transferred all the force, according to the city.
New vehicles require a new infrastructure, which has led to the construction of 34 level 2 electric vehicle chargers at the South Pasadena town hall, funded by the Ready Ready program from southern California Edison. An additional level 3 charger, which can provide entirely an electric vehicle in about an hour, will also be installed in the police parking.
The City should also benefit from the income generated by 14 EV chargers oriented public at the town hall plus the standard carbon carbon credits in the state Air Resources BoardThis could result in thousands of dollars a month.
A solar storage system and battery storage that was provided by the Power Ready program of the Clean Power Alliance protects the Manussière Department from electricity during electricity failures and network failures.
The project plans to reduce 1,850 tonnes of carbon dioxide creating smog by 2030, considerably exceeding the city's current plan for the police service to reduce 23 metric tonnes by 2030.
The move to Tesla's fleet reduces 10% of the overall discounts of the city's emissions necessary to respect the climate action plan of the State in 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below the 1990 levels on the scale of the State.
The member of the municipal council Michael Cacciotti is perhaps the biggest defender of the outdoor alternatives.
The inspiration for the plan started two decades ago, said Cacciotti, after reading studies on the prejudice of air pollution and decided to exchange in his sports car, asking the car dealers: “What is the clean car that you have available?”
Cacciotti, who is also vice-president of Air quality management district of the southern coastsaid he had bought a Toyota Prius which is still solid after 20 years and 188,000 miles. He recently needed his very first change of brakes and rotors-a testimony to the little maintenance of hybrid and electric cars, he said.
Protecting public health, said Cacciotti, was an engine factor in the change. Inactive police cars while the police write tickets to traffic or respond to emergency calls. Meanwhile, gas cars release emissions that affect the health of children and alumni and aggravate the climate crisis. “We cannot ignore these things,” he said.
Now that the infrastructure for electric city vehicles is in place, Cacciotti has said that it plans to replace city fire trucks with zero-emission versions in the coming years.
South Pasadena is not the first to turn to zero emission vehicles. The city of Irvine recently added a cybertruck to its fleetalthough it is not used on patrol, and Anaheim added Teslas In a pilot program in April.
Meanwhile, updates, oil changes and replacement of ignition caps are now things from the past to the South Pasadena police department. The reduction in long -term maintenance costs is part of the savings plan.
During the preparation of the project in the past four years, said Abdalla, city officials had to reconsider accidents involving police cars.
The Tesla Model Y and the model 3 are among the safest vehicles on the market, with the highest possible note Road safety insurance institute.
“We made this decision because we wanted the safest and most competent vehicle for work,” wrote the South Pasadena police department in a post.
The ministry's announcement obtained a handshake emoji from the North American X account of Tesla.
But Tesla's security characteristics, such as aid on the track and emergency stop, could work against patrol agents when they continue a suspect and must sail in high speed traffic or make a maneuver to bang a fleet, forcing it to turn or stop.
For maneuvers that involve fleeing cars, Abdalla said, it is difficult to test because it would need to crash a car. The assistance of the track can be deactivated in the circles of Tesla, and the department has not encountered any problem since the test of the first Tesla font last December.
Abdalla said it was optimistic that experience would be a success.
“It's been years of work,” he said, “and it's exciting to see him materialize.”
