Darrell Smith, Connersville News-Examiner Reporter
"They thought of everything."
These were the words of Connersville Deputy Police Chief Dennis Perkins, speaking of the Carbon E7 law enforcement vehicle which will be on display Tuesday at the former Visteon facility on Indiana 1 north of Connersville.
Perkins and Police Chief Dave Counceller were part of the local delegation to view and sit in the car in March while it was on display in Washington, D.C.
Counceller explained that the car is not a product of a current car company, it is totally new, or "purpose-built."
"In the past, we've had Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler and basically the same car the major companies built and added a police package," he said. "It is not like a firetruck that is built from the ground up."
Mayor Leonard Urban said that for years, fire departments ordered a truck chassis from a major company and then began hanging tanks and equipment on it. Today, firetrucks are built from the ground up with everything designed for the needs of the firefighter.
Ambulances are no longer vans converted to serve the patient and medic but purpose-built to help save lives and many postal carriers use special-built vehicles, but law enforcement continues to utilize passenger cars converted to serve as police cars operating at times more than 100 mph.
The idea for the vehicle came from a former police officer from the suburbs of Dallas who also had an engineering degree, Counceller said. That former officer worked with a group of people, many of who had been involved with Ford Motor Co., and sold them on the idea for a car built just for police officers.
A survey of some 2,500 police officers was conducted by Carbon Motors which offered the company many of the ideas for the new vehicle and many of those ideas have been incorporated in the prototype, he said.
An accompanying comparison chart indicates the details, but Counceller said some of the specifics he likes are the diesel engine that will power the car from 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds with 40 percent better fuel mileage and the car should have offer 250,000 service miles.
"The front seat feels like a jet cockpit," he said. "There is a place for rifles, shotguns, nightsticks, flashlights, plenty of headroom for policemen of any size and there are even cup holders. Dennis (6 foot 2 inches) and I were in full gear with hats and there was plenty of room."
The seat is cut away to allow the guns, radios, handcuffs and other equipment on the officer's belt to fall into space, he said. He showed the excessive wear on the inside of his office chair's armrests caused by rubbing of gun and equipment. He said the same wear is true of front seats in current police vehicles.
In front of the officer is a steering wheel with various controls at the fingertips to allow the officer to use the radio and lights and never remove the hands from the wheel or take the eyes off the road during a pursuit, Perkins said.
The headrest has air flow built in so that in hotter climates, the officer is more comfortable, he said.
"When it's hot, you want to get out of the car but this way, you can continue to patrol," he said. "I might not get out if I had one."
The computer will be built into the car.
Counceller said that currently, the city patrol cars do not have computers but a goal of the department is to add computers. Those computers would be laptops that would have to mount on a bracket extending over the passenger seat.
The E7 computer would be touch screen to make searches easier. From the car, an officer can receive information about arrest warrants, vehicle registration and drivers licenses, he said.
Built-in cameras - front and rear - will be able to scan a license plate, read it and then the computer can provide information about the car to the officer, he said. The cameras can show the location of the car to its surroundings in front and back on the screen.
"Spotlights are built into the mirror rather than now where you drill a hole in the roof post which weakens the post," he said. "There are lots of lights all over."
The back compartment for a person arrested offers many advantages for the officer and the prisoner.
The prisoner compartment is entered through rear suicide doors which open all the way, rather than the 45 degree angle currently available, making it much easier to place prisoners in place, Counceller said. The plastic seat is molded so that the prisoner is not sitting on handcuffs and is not placed in an uncomfortable position.
"The way the seatbelts are installed, the officer no longer will have to reach across the prisoner to latch the seatbelt, subjecting the officer to biting or bumping," Perkins said. "You can pull the belt straight down and latch."
The compartment is sealed so that if the prisoner vomits or there are bodily wastes present, it does not enter the officer's compartment, Counceller said. There is a drain plug on the car that can be removed and the rear compartment hosed down for cleaning.
He said he wasn't sure which features were options and which were standard, but a gas detection device is available which senses if a gaseous material has been released and supposedly the equipment will be able to identify the gas.
The cost of the vehicle is believed to be some $40,000 for the standard unit, Counceller said.
By comparison, he said a Ford Crown Victoria, or a comparable Dodge Charger, would cost about $43,000 to fully equip, but the E7 will have a service life of some 250,000 miles while the other options offer 80,000 to 100,000 good miles.
The uniqueness of the company continues after the car has been used, he said.
"When you get rid of them, they will go back to the company as trade-in, be evaluated and possibly refurbished and sold out at a lower price to agencies," he explained. "They will not be sold on the open market like you now see old police cars."
Not only are the cars designed for officers in the United States, Counceller said company plans include building right-hand steer for England and countries driving on the left side of the road and smaller models for Europe and countries with narrow streets.
The car has so much special-built equipment, the company will have to contract with many companies to build the special computers, cages, seats, dividers, which should all increase job creation in the area," he said.