The Hillsdale Police Department expects to add two new Ford Explorers to its fleet, according to Hillsdale Police and Fire Chief Scott Hephner.
The city has ordered two 2022 Ford Explorers, one for detectives and one for patrolling, Hephner said.
The detective unit will be unmarked, while the patrol car will be marked and come with a “police interceptor” package, a model specifically designed for police.
The 2022 Ford Explorer comes with a 10-speed transmission and “available intelligent four-wheel drive,” according to Ford.
The Hillsdale City Council discussed bids for the patrol car on Oct. 4, 2021, according to a city council meeting agenda.
“The bid vehicle is a replacement vehicle for our detective’s car,” Hephner said. “We have a patrol car that’s on order right now.”
Hephner expects the patrol car to arrive in the spring of 2022, but said the delivery date was delayed due to supply chain issues.
“We have to wait for them to get built, which takes longer than it used to, and then you’ve got to deal with the microchip issue,” Hephner said. “We’re expecting the one we ordered in October to hopefully be here by spring, but we just don’t have an exact date.”
The city initially sought bids on a new unmarked sedan during the summer of 2021 with no success, according to Hephner.
“We actually put it out for bid at the end of last summer, and we got zero bids back. We were trying to replace it with a car, and not many people are making cars anymore, so we had to figure something else out,” Hephner said.
As of Monday, Hephner said, only one company had submitted a bid for the project. Hephner, however, said he expected more bids to come in by the deadline. The Hillsdale City Clerk’s office
The city prioritizes bids that are local.
“The city actually has a purchasing policy that if a local dealer can come within 3% of the lowest bid, we will give strong consideration to a local bidder,” Hephner said.
The new cars will replace the city’s current 2010 detective vehicle, along with the city’s oldest patrol car, according to Hephner. The police department replaces its oldest vehicle with a new one every four to five years.
“We’ve got a couple that are up there with 115,000 city miles on them,” Hephner said. “We try to get them replaced before they hit catastrophic failure.”
