Soaring oil prices are causing Oxford County police to worry that they could run out of gas money for their cruisers before the end of the year, Oxford County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Jim Davis said.
“I am very concerned about it,” Davis said, adding that he has proposed increasing the gas budget by 36 percent, or $11,450, in 2006.
More than two-thirds of the county’s allotted $31,550 to fuel 15 cruisers through Jan. 1 had been spent by July, leaving less than $10,000 to carry the fleet through the next few months. The dwindling numbers facing Davis are forcing him to find new ways to curtail costs.
Since last year, oil prices have jumped more than 36 percent, according to AAA Southern New England. But while homeowners can buy wood stoves and insulate windows, and commuters can car pool, police have a tougher time coming up with ways to economize on gas. Their job demands they be mobile and fast.
“It’s hard to figure out how to reduce the consumption of gasoline,” Davis said. “It’s hard to control because it depends on complaints and where they are. You can get a complaint at one end of the county and then another on the other end,” he said. “We can’t not respond to calls.”
The 12 patrol cars log about 2,500 miles a month and burn gas at the rate of 17 miles per gallon, Davis said.
“First thing someone says is, why don’t we use more economical vehicles,” Davis said.
Investing in a new fleet of vehicles that might have more gas-efficient engines would necessitate buying all new compatible parts, Davis said. Oxford County deputies, like much of the country’s police, drive Ford Crown Victorias, which are replaced every three years.
Instead, Davis said, “we have to be creative,” such as transferring funds from other areas to cover fuel.
Some town police in Oxford County are also concocting ways to conserve gasoline, such as reducing idling time and mapping different patrol routes.
David Verrier, Paris police chief, said he has thought about every possible way to save gasoline money, with the exception of cutting back on patrol time.
“If we’re not in an area as a deterrent, I wouldn’t want to see burglaries go up,” he said.
Instead, officers will be turning their cars off while they wait for speeders and at certain other times. The department has also mapped what Verrier calls “smarter” patrol circuits that will cut back on total mileage, which for a typical 12-hour shift added up to 40 or 50 miles.
For Paris’s fiscal year, which runs July to June, Verrier added $2,000 to the gas budget, increasing the total from $8,000 to $10,000 to cover the town’s four cruisers.
And he still does not think this will be adequate.
“I’m anticipating going over $10,000,” he said. “Instead of going out to buy things I need, I won’t. We’re going to go without items.” He said that because the fiscal year is still young, he’s not thinking yet about what to pinch, but said that it would be nothing that would hinder the department’s ability to police the town.
Oxford County and towns buy discounted gas from C.N. Brown and are not required to pay state or federal tax, which saves about 44 cents per gallon.
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