CAPE CORAL, FL - A study of City of Cape Coral, Fla., police department vehicle policy found that its current take-home program is cheaper than switching to a pooled vehicle program, according to the Cape Coral Daily Breeze.

The "Assigned Vehicle Policy Evaluation," conducted by the SW Florida Center for Public and Social Policy at Florida Gulf Coast University, compared the current program with a pure pool vehicle program (PVP), where all personnel would share vehicles, and a modified PVP, where some personnel would have assigned vehicles and others would not.

Cost factors considered in the alternative programs include maintenance and repair, parking, lost officer productivity, and the replacement of department vehicles. Land acquisition costs for vehicle parking, the value of citizens' sense of safety, and employee morale, were not factored into the analysis.

The study found:

"The results of the study clearly demonstrate that the current Assigned Vehicle Policy program is the most cost effective in the short (1 Year), near (3 Year) and longer (7 Year) term. The data challenges the perception that there is significant off duty use of department vehicles. Assigned vehicles used for off duty trips occur at a very low rate (2.7%). The study concluded that the more an agency pools its vehicles, the greater the cost. This is primarily a factor of low number of personal miles driven, higher costs of maintenance and repair, pooled vehicle parking, and officer salaries relative to the cost of a vehicle."

Cape Coral officials will consider the results as they review the city's entire fleet management system, according to the newspaper.

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