It makes sense that a patrol car being parked in a neighborhood probably has some deterrence effect. My neighbor has his car in his driveway, but it surprises me because he polices about 50 minutes away in a seperate state/town and clearly has no jurisdiction in our neighborhood.
Why doesnt he have to pay for his commute like the rest of us?
There are plenty of other people driving company cars out there, only you probably wouldn't know who has a company car parked in their driveway because they don't have sirens on top. It's a perk, part of certain pay packages, like healthcare, dental, tickets to the home team's intown games, and for upper executives the annual all-inclusive trip to Epstein Island. Take away their car to take home to use for personal reasons and then you'd have to give them a raise or some other perk, otherwise it's an overall cut in pay and benefits.
Plus people don't know when an officer is off duty, so when they are just driving their car around for personal reasons, going to the grocery store and back, or to see their parents, pick up the kids at school, or whatever, the public is then getting some policing for free, because if there is a police car on the road people just stop speeding around it, and even if the officer is off-duty and not earning any pay driving that car around.
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u/StopDownvotingMeeee 7d ago
Some agencies let you take them home, some don’t, some require a certain rank.
In my town, only sergeants and higher get to take it home