Protecting Officers and Establishing Cost Savings in Cobb County

Through a little ingenuity and collaboration, the fleet team for Cobb County, Georgia, has worked like a well-oiled machine to maintain the law enforcement fleets for both the sheriff’s office and police department.

Innovations like making needed vehicle parts in-house, creating cost savings through the use of alternative fuel vehicles, protecting officers with emerging technology, and ensuring K-9 officers are safe through remote monitoring are what made the Cobb County Fleet Department one of three inaugural Police Fleet Innovators named by Government Fleet in 2024.

Producing Parts In-House to Save Money

Any fleet manager will tell you that purchasing even small replacement vehicle parts can be costly. A small, yet important part that the Cobb County fleet team has struggled to keep on its vehicles is the battery cover for its Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicles.

Officers often throw them away, not realizing the covers also protect the cabin air intake and cabin air filter in their vehicles. In order to get a new cover, the team would have to order the entire cowling for $250.

Fleet Services Director Al Curtis’ solution was to use a 3-D scanner and printer to make the covers in-house. It not only saves two to three days in ordering time, but the parts can be printed for less than $2 each.

This solution allows the team to keep them on hand to install when technicians notice they are missing during routine preventive maintenance services.

The team is also able to avoid having the printed parts be thrown away, through the creation of a tether that keeps them attached. Using a 3-D printer to make these small yet expensive vehicle parts can help generate major savings and avoid wait times for ordered parts to come in.

While the printer itself is around $1,200 — meaning that just five of these covers would help the machine pay for itself — this was not a decision fleet leadership made on a whim. They began by testing out the local library’s 3-D printer to make the parts to see if they worked well.

The department plans to purchase its own 3-D printer during the upcoming fiscal year. To get buy-in for a purchase like this, Curtis recommends sharing about the benefits to stakeholders.

“When they start showing stakeholders that it's going to be six months because a part is on back order, or that it's not being produced anymore, that'll definitely get the buy-in. It'll show that they're being innovative and trying to make sure that downtime on a vehicle is minimized by thinking outside the box,” Curtis said.

Similar to 3-D printing replacement parts, the department has also invested in key-cutting and programming systems to cut the cost of replacement keys.

A typical key cut and programmed at a dealership or through a mobile vendor can cost up to $400. The fleet team can make and program key fobs for around $50.

In addition to getting creative with replacement parts, the team has also experimented with rebuilding engines in-house using aftermarket kits.

Additionally, the team has rebuilt some of the transmissions in its surplus vehicles to be used in the event of a transmission failure on its other vehicles. This approach costs $1,600, compared to the $3,500 factory rebuilds.

Curbing Fuel Spend and Emissions with Alt-Fuel Vehicles

While the upfront costs associated with switching to clean vehicles can be high, the long-term return on investment proves them to be worth exploring as a viable alternative fuel option. Across the two law enforcement fleets the team in Cobb County manages, leadership is working hard to find use cases for electric vehicles.

So far, four Ford Mustang Mach-Es have been deployed in the sheriff’s department, and they have worked well for traffic patrol and serving warrants. Five more EVs are being used as admin vehicles. More are on order for both patrol and admin this year.

The sheriff’s department also deployed the first electric prisoner transport van in 2022. The agency is expected to save $40,514 over the first three years using it.

The Cobb County Police Department has over 150 hybrids on its fleet.

Fleet leadership is also working to cut down on idle time, which both leads to engine wear and tear, and higher emissions. The team has installed Derive VQ idle reduction software to change idle points, allowing the vehicle to idle lower. The technology also changes the shift points, optimizing the shift points in the transmission to make sure the vehicle gets the maximum amount of fuel economy achievable.

Officers also like the technology, so it’s a win-win.

“It actually improves the shift points, so officers have quicker takeoff speeds and top-out speeds,” Curtis explained.

So far, the technology has been deployed on about 100 vehicles. Curtis hopes to expand this.

Utilizing Emerging Technologies to Protect Officers

In recent years, ambush attacks on officers in their vehicles have made national headlines. The fleet team has deployed an officer protection package pilot on some of the sheriff’s department patrol vehicles.

The technology integrates with vehicle systems to detect movement around deputies’ vehicles and deploy several systems to alert and protect them.

The technology uses the rear park assist system and side cameras to detect movement when vehicles are in park.

When movement is detected, there is an audible beeping, the backup camera shows up on the dash display, the windows roll up and doors lock, the backup lights turn on, and the lights flash.

“It makes the deputies feel more secure. In the wake of someone coming up to the officer while they're working and looking to do harm, this gives them a heads-up and alert that someone is approaching their vehicle,” Curtis said.

Leadership has also invested in aftermarket advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) so that the technology is present on older models produced before much of the technology became standardized. Curtis believes this investment will save the department money in risk management in the future.

Additionally, technicians have been trained to use Bosch’s crash data retrieval technology to assist in the event of a lawsuit. Previously, the county did not have the vehicle data necessary to use if it faced litigation over an officer-involved crash. This technology can be used to store pre- and post-crash data if the vehicle is involved in a collision or rollover.

Keeping K-9s Safe with Remote Monitoring

In 2023, one of Cobb County Police’s K-9s, Chase, tragically died when the factory air conditioning system in his handler’s vehicle stopped working and the heat alarm system that was meant to activate if that ever happened failed to work.

This led fleet leadership to add a backup alert system that will kick in if the main one does not deploy. The team did research and found a company called Fleet Holster that deploys similar technology for commercial trucks.

The technology can be integrated with Geotab, allowing it to be remotely monitored. It can also send alerts to the K-9 handler’s phone in the event of a temperature change in their vehicle.

The standalone system has a battery back-up that can kick in, ensuring it works anytime it’s needed. The technology is currently being tested on some of the sheriff’s department K-9 vehicles, with summer being the perfect time to put the technology to the test.

“As we try to make sure our human officers are safe, we do definitely want to make sure our K-9 officers are safe as well,” Curtis said.

When it comes to officer safety – whether for humans or K-9s – fleet has a huge responsibility.

“The officers entrust us to keep the vehicles on the road and to keep them safe. We make sure that they have the best vehicles out there. And I think it’s our charge to look for innovative solutions to help officers feel safe and stay safe on the road,” Curtis said.