Community members will start noticing a new look on Battle Ground Police Department (BGPD) vehicles as eight new squad cars will hit the streets in the coming months.
The cars will sport personalized designs featuring Mount St. Helens looming over evergreen trees with a large blue stripe on the side providing a two-tone black and blue scheme. BGPD Chief Dennis Flynn said the design was a collective of police department staff ideas.
“We sent a message out to the entire police department, commissioned and professional staff, and said, ‘Would you like the opportunity to change the branding, the look of our patrol cars? If so, submit your ideas,’ ” Flynn said. “So we had almost 35 people send in different versions, and you can imagine we got all kinds of different ideas, but we fine-tuned it knowing that it had to keep that Battle Ground theme and of course the professionalism. So what you see on the patrol cars today is the view that has Mount St. Helens. It’s got the color scheme that works with the city, and you have ownership that everybody in the police department had a chance to have an input on what that would look like.”
Flynn said the new design brings a sense of pride to younger department staff.
“These are people that are going to be with us for hopefully the next 20-plus years,” Flynn said. “They had an input into a vehicle that many of them will drive every single day.”
As well, the importance of community is highlighted on the back of the patrol cars with the slogan, “Partners with the community.” Flynn said that was important to include as a reminder for his officers as he strives to have the department work in conjunction with everybody in the community.
Flynn said the design on the new patrol cars cost a third as much as the previous graphics that were done on the aging fleet when they were new.
“We found a local company here, and the reason that we thought that was so important was investing back into our local economy. I think that just really helps us shine and shows our commitment to making our community that much better,” Flynn said, adding hiring locally saved the department money, as well.
The updated design comes with an upgraded fleet as eight new Ford Explorer model Police Interceptor Utilities replace aging vehicles with six-digit miles, Flynn said. To assist in overall costs, gear inside the older Ford models have been installed in the newer vehicles.
“Our vehicle fleet had become very tired,” Flynn said. “Our city leadership and our City Council, when we talked to them about the condition of our fleet, they graciously allowed us to pick up eight new vehicles. And the reason that was important was because we were spending so much money on repairs for these cars that had such high mileage.”
Flynn said the department had four vehicles that were over 100,000 miles, but not a regular 100,000 miles. He said that patrol cars often sit idling while the officer is at a call, which adds hours onto the engine, noting that mileage is just one part of the equation into an aging patrol fleet.
“And unfortunately, we do have to go to some calls that we have to respond to very quickly,” Flynn said. “So they don’t get the normal driving that the average person would put on a vehicle. The mileage can almost be equated to dog years.”
