The Aspen Police Department has a shiny-new green toy. This week, the
department started testing out a 2008 Toyota Highlander hybrid
gas/electric-powered squad car.
“We had a lot of concern about how it would handle all of our
equipment,” said Sgt. Brian Nichols, who picked up the cruiser in
Denver on Friday. “But so far we’ve had no problems.”
They’re testing how it handles the multitude of police electronics, and also how it handles in the ice and snow of Aspen.
Aspen City Council prompted the department to explore replacing their
fleet with hybrids in 2004, when the city’s contract with Saab expired.
But they determined the still-developing hybrid technology wasn’t yet
reliable enough to use in an emergency vehicle, and went with a fleet
of Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicles instead. (The new hybrid looks
almost identical to the silver-and-black Volvo patrol cars, except for
a bumper sticker of the “Canary Initiative” emblem, the city’s global
warming campaign.)
Last autumn, Sgt. Nichols and former APD officer Adam Crider traveled
to Lindsay, Calif., where the police have been using Highlanders in
their 22-car fleet since 2006.
The Highlander pollutes less, and gets about twice as much mileage per
gallon of gasoline. (And with gasoline prices topping $4 in Aspen,
could potentially save some taxpayer dollars.) Police also say the
silent engine will work to their advantage on street and alley patrols
— allowing police to approach suspected criminals more stealthily.
“If it weren’t for the sound of the tires on the pavement, it’d be completely silent,” said Sgt. Rob Fabrocini.
In addition, they’re using the new car to test out upgraded electronic
equipment. With $22,000 in gadgets — including an Internet-connected
laptop computer and a magnetic strip reader for drivers’ license checks
— the equipment allows officers to do background checks and
administrative work while patrolling, which would normally have to be
done at the department.
“We installed all this stuff to test out and see, ‘Do we need it out in
the field?’” said Sgt. Nichols. “Do we want it in the rest of the cars?”
California’s Lindsay Police Department has had trouble with the hybrid
generators, which created an electro-magnetic field that interferes
with radar transmissions, meaning they have to use traditional
hand-held radar guns to check drivers’ speeds. The APD trial hybrid has
not had trouble with radar so far.
If the Highlander experiment works out, the APD hopes to purchase
hybrids for the rest of the fleet at the end of this year, when their
contract with Volvo is up.
“So far,” Sgt. Nichols said, “it’s every bit as good as the Volvos.”
andrew@aspendailynews.com
