I am currently a student at a public college in New Jersey. One of the things that I have been working on with the Student Government (and yes, they are very welcoming to the idea) is trying to get Prii for the campus security force (they currently use gas-guzzling Dodge Durangos and Jeep Liberties). We figured since the Prius was cheaper than most of the SUVs or payback time was really short, and that SUVs are not needed for patrolling the campus (my campus is rural and security never exceeds speeds above 25), that it would be a good idea to replace them with hybrids. My question is, is there a way to install flashing lights (they wouldn't have to put overheads, but have the tailights and headlights flash when activated) or a form of radio so that they can radio back and forth on the Prius. We would need to figure this out in order so it could be viable.
There was a post here about 6 month's ago about another college police doing exactly the same thing. I think this is the thread: http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=2...hl=prius+police
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ Nov 13 2006, 11:11 AM) [snapback]348206[/snapback]</div> That's even better. My campus security force are not actual police (think mallcops), so if an actual police force can do it, so can we.
There have also been studies of the costs of Prius in fleet use, that would be useful in convincing the 'money people' about this decision. If you cannot find those with internet search engines, call back and we'll try to dig them up.
I don't know what the duties and responsibilities are for your campus cops you are trying to put into Prius. Your intentions may be great, but hopefully you aren't doing it at the expense of their safety. If I had a belt full of radios, guns, bullets, baton, etc.. I'd rather run up to a durango or jeep and hop in than a Prius. It would also be much easier to hop out of the Jeep or Durango if a quicker exit were ever needed... at least for me and my past experience with pickups and my explorer vs.. my prius. I know crown vic is a popular cop car... The prius is no crown vic either. I'm not sure if your guys/gals have all that stuff or not. If they just drive around all the time and never have to 'engage' any action, then they'd probably be fine with the Prius. Don't aim for gas savings and eco-friendly and end up making their jobs more dangerous for them. Have their input in the process and listen to their reasons. I'm sure "We love to burn more gas" won't be on their list of reasons to keep the current fleet.
"I don't know what the duties and responsibilities are for your campus cops you are trying to put into Prius. Your intentions may be great, but hopefully you aren't doing it at the expense of their safety. If I had a belt full of radios, guns, bullets, baton, etc.. I'd rather run up to a durango or jeep and hop in than a Prius." No, they basically are the equivalent of mall cops, they have little or nothing in their belt. Plus, this campus is very safe, we are in a rural area. "It would also be much easier to hop out of the Jeep or Durango if a quicker exit were ever needed... at least for me and my past experience with pickups and my explorer vs.. my prius. I know crown vic is a popular cop car... The prius is no crown vic either. I'm not sure if your guys/gals have all that stuff or not. If they just drive around all the time and never have to 'engage' any action, then they'd probably be fine with the Prius." Yes, that's exactly what the security force at my college is. They never really have to do anything dangerous.
Campus police mainly do patrolling so a fast car isn't needed. My campus uses Crown Vics and Impalas. They have the occasional Tahoe. They don't seem to switch to Japanese lol. The only import vehicles on campus are 10+ year old Suzuki Swifts and 20+ year old Toyota Vans and the occasional smart fortwo.
There may also be some money available from the government. NJ Transit bought some Prius and Escape hybrids for their fleets, I'm sure they must have had some incentives to do so.
down here many of the clinical vehicles (delivering tissue samples from OR to research lab) are hybrids or other efficient vehicles. also some of the basic university operations vehicles are classic prius. just noticed the other day a new 07 prius with a big "radiation safety division" sticker on the side of it i was happy to see it. so don't just think security, and don't just give up if they say no to the security idea. around here campus cops need to be pretty mobile pretty quickly.
