Officers’ Free Rides Questioned in Fairfax
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA - More than 370 of Fairfax County’s police cars, trucks, and SUVs are taken home by officers every day, with taxpayers footing the bill for their gas, maintenance, insurance, and tolls.
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA - More than 370 of Fairfax County’s police cars, trucks, and SUVs are taken home by officers every day, with taxpayers footing the bill for their gas, maintenance, insurance, and tolls, according to www.washingtonpost.com.
Officers estimate that the vast majority of the vehicles travel outside
Fairfax, as 70 percent of the department’s 1,431 officers live outside the county.
For many years, Fairfax has had no policy governing how far a take-home car could go or how it could be used when an officer was off duty. That allowed the cars to be taken on hunting or fishing trips. Some officers who have a take-home car don’t have a personal vehicle. So, Fairfax Police Chief David Rohrer is creating rules about the location and use of take-home cars, and an e-mail he sent to officers recently said that some of them might have to seek “alternative transportation or a personal vehicle if they have been dependent on a take-home vehicle.”
But after reducing the fleet over the past year, he is not taking additional steps to take away the cars or give more cars to officers who live in Fairfax, according to the report.
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