I see it happen a lot in media and didnt know if there was any truth behind it
Does law enforcement assign older cruisers to officers as a seniority/punishment system
r/AskLE
I see it happen a lot in media and didnt know if there was any truth behind it
Comments
No, unless that’s all they have then yes a newer officer will get assigned that car, but it’s not for punishment reasons. A lot will hang onto older cars for “spares” when their main ones go down.
To paraphrase Edward Conlon in his book “Blue Bloods”
“If I lose my sergeant, the job will give me a new one. If I lose my car, the job probably won’t give me a new one.”
Oh man, the senior guys at my department always wanted the old cars.
They were used to them, and the department freaked out a lot less if you wrecked an old car than if you did a new one.
Neighboring agency issues car assignments (pool cars) monthly by activity.
So if you’re one to not do much, you get the older crappier cars. The caveat is that this agency has dash cams in the older cars and supervisors will review and nitpick your stops if you’re assigned to them.
Needless to say morale is not the best at this agency.
No. Usually the higher mileage cars are assigned to new guys because they are more likely to wreck them.
If you ask the old guys who don’t want the shitty cars, then yes, they’re being punished. If you ask the old guys who aren’t in the old cars, but want them, then yeah, they’re being punished. If you ask the old guys who don’t want the older cars and aren’t assigned the older cars, they’ll say they’re being punished by not being asked if they want the older cars.
Moral of the story – the old guys are always being punished, if you ask them.
The older crappy cars go to people who tend to wreck, damage or otherwise have issues with cars. Prove you can have nice things and you get nice things. Prove you passing EVOC was a fluke, or your mom/dad failed you, you get an old rickety POS.
I managed to drive the oldest car in the fleet for its last shift (crown Vic) and I know all the older officers would have happily taken it.
Other than that, in my experience the rookies get the old junkers although some senior officers prefer certain cars no matter how old they are.
Do you know how much fun it is to drive a car with no ABS or traction control?
I always took the oldest car cause I figured if i wrecked it, they wouldn’t be as mad as a new one even though I had the seniority for a new one.
I was a dwi liked the lights on top magnet though
The department I worked for assigned take-home cruisers based on seniority, with a right of refusal. So brand new cruisers get offered to the top officers on the seniority list, and cruisers that someone gave up are passed down the list. Anyone has the right to refuse a cruiser that’s passed down and just stay in their cruiser, and many did hang on to one they liked.
My local agencies all have take-home cars. The older and smaller cars are assigned to officers who don’t do patrol (school resource officers, court security, etc).
“No”
Depends on the agency. The smallest agency I’ve ever worked for had over 1,000 vehicles. It was mostly seniority based, sometimes favoritism from the brass, or sometimes if you were buddy-buddy with the fleet manager.
Some guys liked their old cars and would keep what they had. Especially when the little Taurus Interceptor came out or when they tried to get the guys to switch from Expeditions to those piece of absolute shit Tahoes. Those things went to the newer guys.
When I graduated from the academy back in 1978, the three of us assigned to my district all were issued brand new 1978 Plymouth Fury’s. Some of the senior guys were pissed, but we were told our squad cars were paid through a federal grant so they had to assign them to us.