Elyria police seeking to replace old cruisers, add two pickup trucks

The Elyria Police Department is seeking city approval to purchase several new vehicles, including two pickup, to replace its older cruisers. On Monday, Capt. Eric Palmer went before Council's Finance Committee to request approval for the purchase of two 2026 Ford F-150 pickup and eight 2025 Ford Explorer Interceptors, special models of the Explorer that are designed specifically for law enforcement. The total purchase cost of the Explorers would be $372,512 while the two F-150s would cost $98,600. The department's 2026 budget included money for up to 12 new vehicles, Palmer said. Palmer heads the department's Services Division, overseeing its budget, fleet and equipment. The Finance Committee approved the purchases unanimously Monday, and the request will go before Council as a whole for final approval. The department already purchased two F-150s last year, which have provided valuable flexibility to the police fleet, Palmer said. "The pickup trucks add utility to the police department," he said. "Oftentimes when we are picking up bikes, for example. There are abandoned bikes out there, and we are trying to stuff them in the back of an Explorer. The backs of those things are not exactly set up to carry bicycles and everything, they are pretty compact, so having pickup trucks adds that utility." Safety Service Director Chris Pyanowski said that all of the new vehicles will replace older vehicles the department currently uses, including the pickup, meaning that the purchase will not increase the size of the Elyria police fleet. The trucks will not be used as primary patrol vehicles, but they are still "pursuit rated," Palmer said, a term manufacturers use to describe vehicles designed to withstand the extreme conditions of police chases and be more durable than a normal model of the same vehicle. The Explorers will be used to replace the eight oldest cruisers that the department still uses. Palmer said the oldest of those Explorers are 2017 models, all of which have more than 100,000 miles on them. "(They are) reaching their end of life stage," Palmer said. "When the vehicles get that old, with the way they are driven by police officers and everything, the maintenance costs on those things get so high that it is actually cheaper for us to (buy new)." The vehicles that are replaced will be sold on an official government equipment marketplace called GovDeals. "Ford is built tough, so you can add another 100,000 (miles) on top of that because they're built tough," said Councilwoman Brenda Davis, D-6th Ward, at the meeting. Davis was a longtime Ford employee and union member. "Not the way my police officers drive those vehicles, you can't," Palmer said. The committee also approved a separate request from Palmer to sell the department's old Taser 7 models of the Taser Self-Defense shock weapons. He said that department had recently upgraded to the Taser 10 model, and no longer had use for the old devices. The Taser 7 models will be sold to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office for $50,000 in total. That proposal will also go before Council as a whole for final approval. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.