As a part of the 1999-2003 Capital Improvement Plan, the City Council approved a vehicle replacement program for the Police Department.

At the beginning of the project, the average black and white had 119,000 miles on it.

This program would replace black and white vehicles after 5 years and replace other vehicles after 7 years.

One of the goals of the scheduled replacement program is to reduce operating and repair expenses, while increasing the safety, availability, and dependability of the fleet.

Additionally, by replacing the vehicles at planned intervals, their resale value is increased. Additional money received from the sale of older vehicles is returned to the replacement program.

At the beginning of the project, the Police Department had 575 black and white vehicles. They were driven an average of 14,000 miles per year. The average age of the black and white fleet was 5 years old, with the oldest vehicles in service being 12 years old. The average number of miles on a black and white was 119,000 miles, with over 50% of the black and white fleet having over 147,000 miles and the oldest vehicles having over 200,000 miles. 

In the first year of the program, the Department replaced 117 black and whites, plus an additional 41 support vehicles.  In the second year, they replaced 120 black and whites, plus an additional 39 support vehicles.

After the first 18 months of the project, the average age of the black and white fleet has dropped from 5 years to 29 months.  The oldest vehicle in the fleet has gone from 12 years and over 200,000 miles to 5 years and less than 100,000 miles.