New inspector general audit targets maintenance of CPD fleet

The Chicago Police Department’s 3,854 vehicles are not maintained as well as they should be — nor are the hard-driven vehicles replaced as often as needed — potentially impacting response times and public safety, a new audit shows.

Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s office reviewed preventive maintenance records from nine of the city’s 22 police districts to determine how well the Department of Fleet and Facilities Management is maintaining the police fleet.

Inaccurate data prevented the inspector general from making a thorough assessment. But the results he did produce were, nevertheless, alarming for a department charged with overseeing 425 city buildings, 10,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment and purchasing new vehicles while maintaining old ones.

The department known around City Hall as “2FM” did not meet the industry standard of at least 95% “fleet availability” in 2017, according to the audit.

Even more troubling: Only 12.9% of preventive maintenance was performed in a timely manner in 2017.

Two factors contributed to the dismal rate of preventive maintenance:

• The fleet maintenance department waited an average of 68 days after police vehicles were due for preventive maintenance to request that those vehicles be delivered to 2FM garages.

• And CPD exacerbated the problem by waiting an average of 13 days after receiving those requests to deliver police vehicles to 2FM garages for repairs.

No wonder police officers sometimes complain about districts without available vehicles.

In a press release accompanying the audit, Ferguson noted the police vehicles take a beating on Chicago streets.

Regular and thorough maintenance is desperately needed to keep them on the street and prevent “low vehicle availability” that could “hinder police response and operations, negatively impact the safety of officers and the public,” Ferguson said.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Ferguson applauded Fleet and Facilities Management Commissioner David Reynolds, an Emanuel administration holdover, for embracing the audit’s recommendations to determine what “process improvements or additional resources are needed” to perform preventive maintenance on a timely basis and improve “communications and cooperation” with CPD to obtain the records needed to “accurately track vehicle availability.”

“2FM’s maintenance and assurance of continued availability of police vehicles is crucial to CPD’s responsiveness and organizational effectiveness, contributing to public safety throughout Chicago,” Ferguson was quoted as saying.

The size of the police fleet has fluctuated from a high of 3,991 vehicles in 2005 to a low of 3,125 vehicles in 2013.

Currently, 3,854 police vehicles are used by 13,350 sworn officers. Police strength is the highest in a decade, thanks to a two-year hiring surge that added more than 1,000 officers on top of those needed to keep pace with attrition.

“One reason for the fluctuating fleet is that 2FM relies on funds from annual appropriations to address vehicle shortages in critical areas of need rather than proactively replacing the fleet on a set schedule,” the audit states.

“2FM told IG that, on average, it receives only approximately half of the budget it would need to fund a true replacement schedule for CPD vehicles.”

For the decade ending on Dec. 31, 2018, annual city spending on police vehicles ranged from $2.5 million to $30 million. The number of vehicles purchased has ranged from 78 to 682.

CPD vehicles are currently maintained “until the end of their life span,” then sold for scrap. That’s “not cost effective,” since older vehicles “require more frequent and complex repairs,” lengthening downtime and, potentially, impacting police operations, officials said.

Fleet and Facilities Management has developed a “multi-year” schedule to replace vehicles after 75,000 miles. That would “reduce the average age of CPD’s fleet, saving money in the long-term and reducing disruptions to CPD’s operations,” the audit states.

“2FM, however, has not received sufficient appropriations to implement its preferred replacement schedule,” according to the audit.

The city recently awarded a five-year, $136.9 million contract to Sutton Ford of Matteson for police pursuit utility vehicles, compact and mid-sized SUVs and hybrid sedans.