Baxter Police Department To Implement Four New Patrol Vehicles

Baxter Police Department has received four new patrol vehicles to rotate out older cars from its fleet.

Chief Danny Holmes said the vehicles were made possible through a grant received with the help of UCDD. He said that the department will drive brand-new Ford Explorers for the first time ever.

“We were just so fortunate, you know we have a six-man fleet, seven counting myself,” Holmes said. “and when you replace four cars at one time at no cost to the city of Baxter, that’s amazing.”

Holmes said the vehicles are currently sitting at Baxter City Hall waiting to become road ready. He said right now, they are in the process of swapping out equipment from the old vehicles and outfitting the new vehicles with it.

Holmes said the grant also supplied funds to get upgraded tasers. He said they also received funds from the Violent Crimes Grant state fund, which will go to upgrading radars and computers.

“When you get to upgrade equipment, it’s just like Christmas for us,” Holmes said. “Because in a small town, there’s not a ton of extra money to go around. So when you have grants and it’s free money, we’re always happy to take free money.”

Holmes said the four vehicles will be road ready and in use over the course of the next week.

“Any time that you take a man out of a 2015 Dodge Charger with 130,00 miles on it and you put him in a 2023 Ford Explorer with no miles on it, that’s pretty huge,” Holmes said. “So we’re hoping to go to all utility vehicles instead of cars anymore just because of the room. We carry so much equipment with us, and these things are absolutely great for any police department.”