Kendall County Sheriff’s Office expects take home squad car program to be in full force by next spring

Kendall County Undersheriff Bobby Richardson anticipates that by April, all Kendall County Sheriff’s deputies will be taking their squad cars home with them.

“We conservatively believe the middle to end of April of next year we should have a complete deployment of all of our squads that have been purchased,” Richardson said in addressing Kendall County Board members at their Nov. 21 meeting.

In September, the board approved $910,000 for the purchase and equipping of 13 new Ford Explorer police interceptors. The addition will bring the sheriff’s fleet of marked vehicles to 45, enough for each sworn officer, Richardson said.

The board voted to buy the 13 vehicles from Ron Tirapelli Ford in Shorewood at a cost of $43,747 each. Radios, sirens, light bars, computers and other equipment for the squads will be added, bringing the cost for each vehicle to about $70,000, Richardson said.

“You’ll start seeing them I believe in the next two to three weeks being deployed as we get them coming in,” he said.

He said some officers already are taking home the vehicles.

“We definitely have gotten a great response from the community, knowing that some of the cars are parked at residences,” Richardson said. “It gives a feeling of security to the community.”

He said the department has a large number of officers still in training, and that they will be able to take home the squad cars once they complete their training.