Images out of St. Louis, Missouri, have revealed that a host of official police vehicles are being used despite being in various states of disrepair, KSDK reports.
According to St. Louis Fraternal Order of Police business manager Jeff Roorda, officers have been sending in images of damaged police cruisers. One of them shows crime scene tape being used to keep the front driver’s side door closed while another reveals a hole that has almost worn through the floor of a police car. Another shows one police car driving on a tire where the belt is visible.
In one case, Roorda even received a text message from an officer who said his car’s entire electrical system failed when he was on patrol, forcing him to coast to a curb because the brakes were not working: “A very dangerous situation and whoever’s call he was going to, they had to find another police officer to handle it,” Roorda explained.
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An email from St. Louis Police confirms that the city is in the process of replacing 63 police cars and said that it will fix any problems that are brought to their attention.
“Many vehicles are racking up miles and getting older, and the department hasn’t received enough funding in the past to replace as many as would be ideal,” the email stated.
Roorda believes the city needs to urgently repair the police car fleet and says the city can find the funds to do so if it scraps a plan to bring an $8 million anti-violence program to the city.