Gleason Police Department Purchases New Patrol Car

Gleason Police Chief Marcus Hopper  announced that the Police Department is purchasing another brand-new patrol car at July’s board meeting, making the city the first in Weakley County to have NCIS availability in their patrol vehicles.

“It doesn't cost the city a dime. We should be picking that up sometime next week. Also, we're the first city in Weakley County to have NCIC in our cars, and what that means is we all have laptops in our cars now. We can actually run tags, driver's licenses, all that stuff. We don't use 911 as much as we used to,” Hopper explained.

The police department is selling one of their Ford Explorers to purchase the new patrol vehicle, a Chevy Malibu. Hopper stated that he personally test drove the vehicle and that the vehicle was approximately $20,000 cheaper.

Hopper said that the department was going to work on the design for the vehicle this week and that they should have one ready soon.

Hopper said that the department was trying to move away from Ford because of all the issues they have been having with them and move everything towards Chevy and GMC.

“Our fleet isn't old right now, but we're trying to get away from Ford. All these Explorers are having too many problems already. Out of warranty, too,” Hopper stated.

Gleason Mayor Charles Anderson stated that Memphis and Nashville are also going with the Chevy Malibu’s.

“It's our understanding also that Memphis and Nashville and the big police departments are going to this type of vehicle,” Anderson stated.

“Memphis Metro purchased 80 cars and Metro Nashville purchased about 100 so there's got to be something good,” Hopper stated.

Hopper stated that the department may end up purchasing more before Christmas.