Police Take-Home Vehicle Safety
Category: Law Enforcement, Fire & Corrections
Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Today’s Tip is for law enforcement.
Consider the safety implications of parking a department vehicle at your house.
Today’s Tip is mostly for law enforcement officers. But it also applies to some in the fire service and corrections. Today’s Tip deals with the safety implications of take-home vehicles.
Some of you have a take-home vehicle assigned to you. Sometimes this can seem like a huge benefit. Sometimes it can feel like a burden. Either way, you should consider the safety implications of parking a department vehicle at your house. This is true even if you drive an unmarked car. Let’s face it. Every criminal in town can spot it as an official vehicle.
In times past, we might have assumed that having a police car parked in the driveway or in front of a house only made the neighborhood safer. But this is not always the case.
It is no secret that there are people who dislike law enforcement officers. By parking in your driveway or in front of your house you are advertising that a law enforcement officer might live there. I am not too worried here about bubble gum on the windshield or an egg on the hood. A criminal who wants to hurt or kill an officer might use this information to cause harm to you or, worse yet, to your family.
If you can, please park your take-home vehicle in the garage. We face danger every day at work. We should do everything we can to avoid inviting that same danger to visit our homes.
That’s Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham, signing off.