Wright City Police Lieutenant Aaron Sutton presented a potential agreement with Enterprise to purchase five new police vehicles at the Dec. 12 Wright City Board of Aldermen meeting. 

The agreement would replace five of the department’s current police vehicles with 2025 Ford F-150s. There were two options for the purchase of the vehicles: one for three years of payments for four vehicles and one for four years of payments on five vehicles.  

According to Sutton, Enterprise would also cover half the cost of outfitting the vehicles for police work. The city would be required to place a $30,000 down payment on the trucks in the first year along with roughly $30,000 for the other half of outfitting costs. 

Sutton continued, saying under the three-year payment plan the city would have a $1,495 monthly payment for each vehicle and under the four-year plan the monthly payment would be $1,327. 

The annual cost to the city under either plan would be roughly $95,000, according to Sutton, who also noted they would be phasing out old police vehicles that are in dire need of replacement. 

“We’re taking five high maintenance vehicles out of the fleet,” said Sutton. “We are not required to fix them or anything like that that we would have to budget for.”

He went on to provide an example saying one of the vehicles they would replace has been in the shop for some time and requires $2,000 worth of repairs. He said he has been holding off on those repairs until they make a decision on the Enterprise agreement. 

Through the agreement, Enterprise had offered roughly $16,000 for the vehicles that will be phased out, although Sutton noted that quote was a worst-case scenario and the city may be able to get more. 

Board members also wanted to explore the city selling the outgoing vehicles themselves to see if they could get any more money. 

They also raised questions about the switch to F-150s as opposed to other police vehicles used by the department like Dodge Durangos. 

Sutton said they had reliability issues with both the Dodge Durangos and Chargers used by the city and felt that not only would the trucks be more reliable, but they would also retain more value. 

“So my understanding of the F-150 is not just the reliability, but the ability to do its job and stay on patrol instead of in a shop,” said Sutton. 

He said several other nearby agencies have started using F-150s including the O’Fallon Police Department. The Truesdale Police Department also purchased an F-150 police vehicle through a USDA grant earlier this year. 

Sutton said he had also reached out to the Washington Police Department who had purchased vehicles through the program with Enterprise and said they were “strong advocates.”

The board decided to continue to think on the agreement and make a decision at their upcoming meeting on Dec. 26. The decision remains whether to sign a contract for the three or four year option. 

Sutton was optimistic once the agreement was signed they would be able to bring the new vehicles into service relatively quickly. 

“It’s a large company, we could probably have them on the road by February, which is astronomically fast,” said Sutton.