Law enforcement agencies get 26 new rides

| 05/02/2014

(CNS): The Ministry of Home Affairs has bought 26 new vehicles for the police, prison, immigration and customs departments, spending around three quarters of a million dollars to replace what officials said were older, less efficient and less reliable vehicles. The Ministry says that as a part of its policy of “cost savings through the regular renewal of assets”, 23 cars were purchased from Vampt Motors following a public tender via the Central Tenders Committee and three more vehicles were purchased for the customs department, which will save government half a million dollars over five years in maintenance and fuel efficiencies. The older vehicles will either be scrapped or sold at public auction, officials from the ministry said in a release.

These purchases come at a time when the Department of Environmental Health has invested in new garbage  trucks and the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure is on the look-out for a fleet of new vehicles.

The savings by spending less than $700,000 on new cars as well as five years of warranty and maintenance was “just one example of the type of strategies that the ministry uses to leverage efficiency and maximize resources,” the ministry stated in a release Tuesday. “The published procurement policy of the ministry requires the overriding consideration of value for money in any procurement,” officials added.

The new vehicles were specified to be more efficient and reliable and come fully equipped for their specific purposes. Sixteen of the vehicles went to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, four to immigration department, one for the ministry and two for the prison. This included four mid-sized SUVs, two commercial vans, two specialized prisoner transport vehicles, ten sedans including five patrol vehicles, three motor cycles and one pick-up truck.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    When will it become MANDATORY for ALL replacement emergency vehicles to be right-hand drive??? How can anyone really drive safely at higher speeds when their line of sight is not the best?

  2. Anonymous says:

    All these new vehicles so the RCIPS can rest their fat A***ses on a new comfotable seat!

    Stop crime…never….Solve crime, even when the evidence is given to them on a plate they still cannot do their job.

    At one time I did support the RCIPS but personal experience has taught me they whole buch could not find their own backsides in the dark!

    • Anonymous says:

      Give them cars without A/C and they may hear something while they are driving or the public may just catch their attention and direct them to what is happening.   Make sure their bus service is discontinued. 

      Too msny offical vehicles are being used for private use, e.g. heavy equipment used to clean private property.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Horses would have been a better use of the money. At least horses don't need replacing after 2-1/2 years and are a greener alternative too! Seems that if RCIPS really need cruisers then why not invest in couple of souped up armored personel carriers, they'd last a lot longer than the big boy hot wheels cars they keep buying.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I am wondering if any of those new vehicles will be put to use to actually have officers who will enforce the traffic laws on the roads every single day!

    Just this morning on my usual drive into town along South Sound Road, I was overtaken by a black, low riding shitty looking car , with extremely dark tinted windows and a blacked-out license plate, traveling at about 55mph!

    Everyone knows that South Sound turns into another Highway every morning with an increasing number of drivers comitting all sorts of offenses, yet I have NEVER seen anyone being pulled over in that area during peek traffic hours.

    I guess it is not convenient to be in those locations where traffice offenses actually take place cause it would mean work would have to be done!

    BTW – the other day someone made an illegal right-hand turn coming off the road by the VW dealership. A cop car passed just then. Guess what happened??? NADA!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Why wasn't the money spent on new police running shoes instead?

  6. Anonymous says:

    WTF I REMEMBER

    Not too long ago the COP saying they had more cars than drivers per shift and now 26 new cars? This has to stop what ever happened to foot patrol.

  7. Anonymous says:

    This should not even be news.  All Government departments (at least the ones who use vehicles excessively) need to have a replacement of vehicles every 3-4 years.  It is good business sense.  Once a vehicle has reached it's lifespan, breakdowns and chronic repairs are more costly to the Government than replacements.  

     

  8. Anonymous says:

    I hope the Police Dept will appreciate them and try to keep them clean at  very least. Every one of the Dept cars you see on the road has scrapes and dents.

    Money must be growing on trees for Govt cause all of a sudden they're buying all of these vehicles.

    What happen to all the tightening of the budget belt that was promised?

     

  9. Anonymous says:

    Of course the boyz need new cars to chase after these uneducated teenagers running wild. Better had invested that money in education improvements first.

  10. Bludstanhan says:

    almost $30k per vehicle!  Holy crap!  Has anyone every heard of fleet purchasing?  This is nuts!  So they spent $750,000 to save $500,000 over 5 years, I wonder if they have calculated deperation into their numbers, Police vehicles will see in excess of 100k miles in those 5 years, how much is that $30,000 car going to be worth then?  Our priorities are screwed up, seriously screwed up!

  11. Anonymous says:

    meanwhile, at the fire-station, "beg ya a dolla nah!?"

  12. Confused says:

    What?? I thought they said we were broke? Redundancies, lack of garbage trucks, lack of school teachers, doctors and nurses, closing of Saturday post offices and the list goes on. But we can afford new vehilces at planning and RCIPS? Robbing peter to pay Paul it looks like to me?

    Ppm where is the roll back in taxes, better health care, reduced insurance costs. Where's the relief promised?

  13. Anonymous says:

    It appears that most of the responders here feel that the police should not have dependable predictable cars to drive.

    When you or a loved one needs the police for help how do you suggest they get there?

    Oh I can hear you all now talking about they never respond… and all that cr@p.  But you have to face reality,  Cops need Cars!!  Dependable Cars.  If there are other issues, OK lets deal with them but the fact remains they need dependable cars.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Replacing the old cars with new ones because they're more efficient is still not good justification. RCIPS will be still every lazy and ever incompetent no matter what vehicle they utilize. 

    Waste.

    Of.

    Taxpayer.

    Money.

     

    Period. (no pun intended)

  15. Anonymous says:

    Sorry, this makes no sense. Constantly in need of more than one ambulance, for years, and here the police effortlessly get 26 new vehicles. This is ridiculous .

    • Anonymous says:

      The article reports that the police are getting 16 vehicles not 26, did you read it?

  16. Anonymous says:

    Where are the new garbage trucks ? They are needed more than police cars . 

  17. Anonymous says:

    "26 bottles of beer on the wall, 26 bottles of beer…hick…"

  18. Walter Kovacs says:

    With the ever growing appearance of corpulence within the RCIPS with startling rapidity, one would think they would be better served by buying a fleet of bicycles and having officers do bike patrols..I ride a bike and know that there are many, many times when I can get anywhere in Georgetown in under 10 minutes and sometimes in less than 5..and it would certainly do the RCIPS good to be able to be connect to the community again…as well as give some of those officers some much needed exercise..

  19. Anonymous says:

    Will these new police cars be fitted with seat belts, or will they be like the existing fleet and not have them?

  20. Hoping for better days says:

    This is the perfect example of how CIG wastes millions of dollars. Really? 3 quarters of a million spent on new vehicles????? WTF!!!!!!!

  21. Anonymous says:

    How many of these are replacements for crash write offs?

    I seem to remember hearing exactly the same excuses for buying a fleet of flash new toys in July 2011 when RCIPS bought the Dodge Chargers. The problem is that in order to gain the claimed benefits over the next five years the vehicles actually have to last that long and many don't.   

    • Anonymous says:

      I wonder whether the people in charge of puchasing the new "Fleet" remembered which side of the road they drive on in Cayman. If so I trrust they have bought RIGHT HAND DRIVE cars!!. This will make them a lot safer than left hand drive, especially when trying to overtake!!.

  22. Anonymous says:

    More cars to mash up on our tax paying $$$$, when will they be accountable when they mash up these cars carelessly?

    • Anonymous says:

      I hope when those cars are mashed up by officers they will be responsible to face up to paying and stop claiming on the insurance.