The Florence City Police Department has joined other agencies across the nation in exploring ways to cut gasoline consumption in light of soaring gasoline prices.
As of about three weeks ago, police officers, when possible, have taken their feet off the gas pedal and used them instead to patrol Florence’s downtown area and city neighborhoods on foot.
“I think we’ve been able to save a little bit of gas doing that,” Florence Police Chief Anson Shells said.
This week, an officer has been driving a moped instead of a car when patrolling the city’s downtown, he said. Not only has it saved fuel, but it also has made city residents feel a little safer.
“It certainly makes a difference, especially in the downtown area. That’s an area where they really can appreciate it, and they do,” Shells said.
About a month ago, the department had to suspend the program allowing officers to take their patrol cars home for seven of its officers because of costs.
Twelve reserve patrol cars also will not be fueled until it is absolutely necessary, he said.
“I’m also asking my officers not to let their cars idle whenever possible, like when they’re doing reports or sitting in one spot,” Shells said.
Florence City officials began to realize something had to be done about six months ago, about the time the price of regular unleaded fuel reached $3 a gallon, Shells said.
Florence City Manager David Williams then implemented the Gasoline Conservation Committee, which is made up of about 20 employees from every department in city.
The committee held its first meeting about a month ago and began looking to other municipalities for ideas on what needed to be done, said Shells, who is the committee chairman.
“(The police department is) exploring hybrid (vehicles). Unfortunately, we’ve already ordered the vehicles for this year, so it’ll be another three years before we can do that,” he said. “If gas prices stay high, as I’m expecting they will, then we’re going to have to make some permanent charges in the way we do things.”
The police department might further modify its take home car policy or buy more mopeds to counteract costs, he said.
“One thing we don’t want to do is cut patrol services, and so we were really struggling with what to cut,” he said. “We were really thrown for a loop this year, with gas prices we did ... overextend our gas line item. It was a big shocker to us. We had to take money from other areas to make up the gas cost.”
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