New Paltz town police hope to be purchasing the department’s first hybrid vehicle in the near future. According to Lieutenant Robert Lucchesi, a request to order a Ford hybrid sports utility vehicle as a replacement for an older, solely gas-guzzling car will be made during the April 16 town council meeting. The money will come from SUNY impact aid, a relatively new source of funding intended to offset local government costs in host communities for state colleges. In the case of New Paltz, $150,000 is going to the village fire department, and $50,000 to the town police department.
The police department is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases within the town’s government, as disclosed in an inventory of carbon-equivalent emissions performed as part of the effort to get New Paltz certified as a “climate smart” community. It’s not just that there are a number of police vehicles, but that they tend to be left idling much of the time that they are in service. That’s because of how they are used.
“Our officers are using their vehicles as an office more and more, and do as much as possible in the police car,” said Lucchesi. The computers and other equipment draw a lot of power, enough that the battery would be quickly drained if the gas engine wasn’t left running as they did their work. “This car is designed to expand the idling time we normally have in a patrol vehicle battery to handle that,” he said. “It’s a more environmentally sound vehicle [that] falls in line with climate-smart initiatives.”
The lieutenant said that there’s “excitement” in the department about this prospect, because the anecdotal evidence that’s been gathered suggest that the technology is now up to the task of supporting modern police work while using less gasoline. “We hope to purchase and lease more hybrid vehicles” in the future, he added.
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