A major budget battle is brewing between Orlando City Hall and the city's cops, with administrators taking aim at a favorite perk: the patrol cars that officers drive home at the end of the day.
Mayor Buddy Dyer's administration has threatened to more than double the fees that officers pay if they take their patrol cars home, or even kill the "take-home vehicle" program altogether. More than 654 cars are now driven home - some as far as Mims, Cocoa and Merritt Island in Brevard County, and Deltona and DeLand in Volusia, with round trips of nearly 100 miles.
"It's a large expense, and that's one reason it's incumbent on us to take a look at it," said Dyer's top manager, Chief Administrative Officer Byron Brooks.
The fees are now relatively low. Officers who live in Orlando pay nothing to take their cars with them at the end of their shifts; those outside city limits pay $70 a month; and those living in other counties pay $90 a month. They don't pay for gasoline, maintenance, tolls or insurance.
Officially, the city is citing its projected $41.5 million budget deficit - and Dyer's proposal to lay off 212 employees, including 36 police officers - as justification for either raising the fee or eliminating the perk altogether. But police union officials say the real reason is their refusal to give up a pay raise they're due next year.
"It's either pressure or retaliatory for us not coming to the negotiating table," said Sam Hoffman, labor chairman for the local Fraternal Order of Police.
Officers have already been told the city will no longer require them to show up - and be paid - for a briefing 15 minutes before their shift begins. That will save the city A major budget battle is brewing between Orlando City Hall and the city's cops, with administrators taking aim at a favorite perk: the patrol cars that officers drive home at the end of the day.
Mayor Buddy Dyer's administration has threatened to more than double the fees that officers pay if they take their patrol cars home, or even kill the "take-home vehicle" program altogether. More than 654 cars are now driven home - some as far as Mims, Cocoa and Merritt Island in Brevard County, and Deltona and DeLand in Volusia, with round trips of nearly 100 miles.
"It's a large expense, and that's one reason it's incumbent on us to take a look at it," said Dyer's top manager, Chief Administrative Officer Byron Brooks.
The fees are now relatively low. Officers who live in Orlando pay nothing to take their cars with them at the end of their shifts; those outside city limits pay $70 a month; and those living in other counties pay $90 a month. They don't pay for gasoline, maintenance, tolls or insurance.
Officially, the city is citing its projected $41.5 million budget deficit - and Dyer's proposal to lay off 212 employees, including 36 police officers - as justification for either raising the fee or eliminating the perk altogether. But police union officials say the real reason is their refusal to give up a pay raise they're due next year.
"It's either pressure or retaliatory for us not coming to the negotiating table," said Sam Hoffman, labor chairman for the local Fraternal Order of Police.
Officers have already been told the city will no longer require them to show up - and be paid - for a briefing 15 minutes before their shift begins. That will save the city - and cost the cops - $910,000 a year.
Since 2001, officers have had the choice of taking their patrol cars home, and nearly all of them do. Union leaders defend the practice, saying it allows cops to respond to emergencies quickly, while they're en route to or from work.
"If you're in a vehicle and you're going to work and something goes down like a robbery or a homicide, you can respond directly," said Hoffman. "Ultimately, it's a benefit to the citizens."
Hoffman said it also makes police more visible on the streets and in neighborhoods where the cars are parked in front of officers' homes.
Finally, the cars last longer, city records show. Rather than being driven 24 hours a day by different shifts, they are generally parked while an officer is off-duty. Cars are now replaced after five years or 100,000 miles; the life of a patrol car was typically one to two years before the city instituted the take-home policy.
To have enough cars to assign them to individual officers, the city bought 281 patrol cars over three years, at a cost of $6.3 million, records show.
Orlando police aren't alone. Many law enforcement agencies across the country - including Central Florida's largest, the Orange County Sheriff's Office - allow officers to drive their cars home.
In Orlando, officers are allowed to run errands in their patrol car while driving to and from work, but otherwise aren't supposed to drive them for personal use. Carrying family members is generally prohibited.
Brooks has asked Police Chief Val Demings to determine how much officers would have to pay to cover the city's cost for the vehicles. Brooks also wants Demings' advice on whether the city should eliminate the benefit completely.
"We need to get a fix on the benefits versus the costs of the program," he said.
According to a police department memo obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the fees would have to increase 134 percent to cover the city's cost. That would raise the current $70-a-month fee to $164, and the $90-a-month fee for those outside Orange County to $210. That would raise $600,000 a year if all officers kept their cars.
Hoffman said many cops would simply give them up: "It's a cheap shot. They're probably going to price a number of officers out of taking the vehicles home."
That would cut down the amount of time officers are on the street, he said. At the end of their shifts, officers might have to turn in gear and weapons that are now stored in their vehicles, and check it out again the next day.
