New Wheels for Romeoville Police

The will spend about $231,000 on five new vehicles.

The village board on Wednesday authorized spending an amount not to exceed $16,000 to purchase a new Ford F-150 animal warden vehicle, plus $9,000 worth of equipment to outfit the truck.

Chief Mark Turvey said the truck and equipment, including lights, a siren and police radio, will be purchased using surplus 2010-11 budget funds.

Trustees also gave Turvey the OK to purchase four new squad cars from Sutton Ford of Matteson for an amount not to exceed $106,000.

According to Turvey, the four Crown Victorias will be purchased with $56,000 from court supervision funds and $50,000 from 2011-12 budget funds.

Turvey said time was of the essence when it came to approving the purchase.

“We need to get our bid in by the end of the month,” to get the vehicles by this summer, since Ford is ceasing production on the Crown Vic, he said. A similar model won’t be released by the automaker until next December, Turvey added.

Another $100,000, to be paid with state asset forfeiture funds, will be used to purchase vehicle equipment, including lights and sirens, from vendors Ray O’Herron, StopTech, Car Reflections, Chicago Reflections, Kustom Signals and CDS Office Technologies.

The bidding process was waived on the vehicle purchases, Turvey said, since Sutton Ford currently holds the state bid and suburban municipal buyers’ contract pricing for the purchase of police pursuit vehicles.

“The bid process already took place with the state,” he said.

Bids were also waived on the equipment purchases to allow the department to continue using familiar products from current vendors, Turvey added.

Turvey said the vehicles are needed, since the department recently got rid of several old squad cars with more than 100,000 miles on them.

“They were in bad shape and they were unsafe,” he said.

Police seek accreditation

The department is seeking accreditation from the State of Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program (ILEAP), according to Turvey.

The department is preparing to submit an application to the Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Council, Turvey told village board members Wednesday.

“The goal is to enhance the professionalism of the department,” he said.

To qualify for accreditation, local police departments must meet 180 standards in the areas of administration, operations, personnel and training, according to Turvey.

After submitting an application, the department must submit a self-assessment, evaluating its own performance in areas including use of force, fiscal management, internal affairs, traffic and training. An on-site assessment is also conducted by ILEAP officials, Turvey said.

The program is open to all municipal, county and state law enforcement agencies, and accreditation is good for four years, he told board members.