NIU police roll out
gas/electric hybrid squad car

by Joe King

When police officers talk about new and improved vehicles, that generally translates to larger and faster. At NIU, however, that trend is making a U-turn.

The NIU Department of Public Safety is rolling out a new car this month, and this is not your father’s Oldsmobile. It’s a Toyota. The latest squad is a gas/electric hybrid Prius which uses a small gasoline engine in conjunction with an electric motor to provide power while keeping emissions and fuel consumption to a minimum.

Now in its second generation, the car is larger and more powerful and fuel-efficient than the earlier model. The NIU transportation motor pool currently uses six Prius (both the first- and second-generation vehicles) vehicles, and all have received excellent reviews. There have been no out-of- the-ordinary maintenance issues, and plans are in the works to add more of the vehicles to the fleet.

According to NIU Police Chief Don Grady, the Prius (outfitted with radio equipment, light bars and other police essentials) is more than enough car to patrol the 1.2-square-mile NIU campus.

“It is simply a matter of having the right tool for the job. It may not be the ideal car for every police application, but it’s an excellent fit for the university,” Grady said. “It just makes good sense. On a campus this size we don’t need big vehicles that are expensive to operate, cumbersome and environmentally unfriendly.”

The Prius, on the other hand, sips gasoline, runs almost silently and is rated as a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle. It also costs several thousand dollars less than the cars it will replace.

Of all those attributes, the gas mileage may be the greatest benefit. The mid-sized Prius, which is EPA-rated at 60 mpg in the city and 55 mpg overall (it gets its best mileage in city driving where the electric motor carries much of the load) will use about 80 percent less fuel than the Ford Crown Victorias currently used by the department. That will result in a savings of thousands of dollars a year if, as planned, the department’s entire fleet of squad cars is converted to the Prius.

“Part of taking care of the community is using their tax dollars wisely and finding the most efficient, effective way to provide the best service possible. The Prius will accomplish those objectives better than a traditional police cruiser,” Grady said. “This car can do everything we need it to do, and do it safely.”

The Prius posts a respectable 0-60 mph time of about 10 seconds, and can easily cruise at speeds substantially greater than the law allows: performance factors that it will rarely, if ever, be asked to produce.

“In this environment, the superior handling of the Prius (34-foot turning radius) is undoubtedly more useful than pure acceleration,” Grady said. “On an emergency vehicle operations course you rarely get a car over 50 mph – I’d wager the Prius would out-perform most police vehicles on such a course.”

Grady expects the community will wholeheartedly approve of the switch to the more economical, environmentally friendly vehicles.

“I believe the public will appreciate our buying intelligently,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that we’re not doing anything revolutionary. Police cars around the world are generally smaller than in America. We’re just applying the best practices.

“The only thing radically different in the Prius is the drive train,” the chief added. “And that won’t be novel for long. Hybrids are coming – it’s no longer a mater of if, but simply when. The question for other police agencies is, ‘Do you want to be out in front of the curve, or pulled into the 21st Century?’ ”

6-14-04