Baxter Police Department to Update Police Car Fleet

The Baxter police department finished restriping police cars with new decals Wednesday.

Baxter Chief of Police Danny Holmes said the fleet needed a change towards a simpler nostalgic look.

“And I wanted a new look. I just didn’t like the way our cars looked, just too much writing on them,” Holmes said. “I don’t know, just sometimes less is better. So, I just sat down one night and I started looking at different patrol cars throughout the country, and I came up with this design here.”

Holmes said the new design takes inspiration from the Michigan State Police seal.

The officers decided to incorporate Upperman High School colors into the design, Holmes said.

“Black and gold. The colors of Upperman High School. And I said, ‘you know what, we need to stick with our colors and we went with them,'” Holmes said. “So we actually stripped the other cars that we had, we took all the old decals off and every single car in the fleet will be striped like this one.”

The new striping on the fleet adds a reflective element.

The old fleet did not have reflective elements. Holmes said he gets complaints about officers not patroling neighborhoods at night. The officers did patrol but citizens could not recognize the cars in the dark, Holmes said.

“Well if you look out the window or you are sitting on the porch, you are going to know that is a Baxter police car and that is what I wanted,” Holmes said. “I want the people of Baxter to know that we are out patrolling and that is what we are going to do. ”

Baxter also bought two new 2018 Durangos with grant money and money from selling a bulldozer, Holmes said.

The Baxter Police will show-off the new look at the Baxter City Council meeting on Thursday.