Rochester's take-home car policy fuels debate on cost of free rides

One in eight Rochester police officers drives to and from work in a vehicle bought, maintained, insured and fueled at taxpayer expense. And nearly all of those city-owned cars travel to homes outside the city.
Police account for 94 of the 130 take-home vehicles assigned across all city departments and would have more but for staffing vacancies.
The cars are intended for employees who can be called out at any time, whether to a crime scene or a water-main break.
Investigators and narcotics officers are most likely to have a 24/7 vehicle assigned. But privileges also extend to those overseeing special events, such as festival and parade coverage, officers working in professional development and internal affairs, and an officer who once oversaw the police fleet but now has administrative duties at headquarters.
At a time of shrinking budgets and cost-cutting, such benefits have come under greater scrutiny. Buffalo has cut back, and its Police Department, though similar in size to Rochester's, today has 46 take-home cars. Monroe County, with 2,000 more employees than the city, cut back years ago and today has 89 take-home vehicles assigned — 13 for the District Attorney's Office and 24 for the Sheriff's Office.
In Rochester, the city's fleet manager surrendered his vehicle in 2008, as did then-Mayor Robert Duffy, his senior management team, refuse-operations manager and forestry supervisor.
More than the cost or number of vehicles, however, it's who has take-home car privileges and where the cars are going that has frustrated some City Council members. City Council has asked police to review and justify all vehicle assignments.
"It's one thing when you are a town away," said City Councilman Adam McFadden, chairman of the Council's Public Safety, Youth and Recreation Committee, "but I don't understand Canandaigua."
Other vehicles are driven to and from Macedon, Victor, Hilton, Honeoye Falls, Walworth, Ontario, Livonia, Lima, Fairport, Webster, Brockport, Kent, Caledonia, Pittsford, Geneseo and Shortsville. Only seven of the 94 police officers with city take-home vehicles live in the city.
Source http://www.democratandchronicle.com/