Kendall County Board OKs $910,000 for 13 sheriff’s squad cars

YORKVILLE – All Kendall County Sheriff’s deputies will be taking their squad cars home with them by next spring.

The Kendall County Board on Sept. 5 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, Undersheriff Bobby 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.

Installation of the equipment will be performed by Emergency Vehicle Technologies of Mokena, Richardson said.

The work to add the equipment will take place at a rate of two vehicles at a time over three weeks for each pair.

The squad cars will be added to the patrol fleet as they become available, with all of them completed by early spring, Richardson said.

County Sheriff Dwight Baird has been working to equip all of his deputies with a take-home squad for more than a year and was planning to ask the County Board to approve the vehicle purchase as part of the fiscal 2024 budget, which starts Dec. 1..

However, when the Joliet Police Department canceled an order for nine of the squad cars, which Tirapelli Ford already had received, the dealer reached out to the sheriff’s office offering to sell the vehicles at a favorable price.

Richardson said the county will save about $20,000 as a result.

The automobile dealer has since received the additional four vehicles slated for Kendall County, Richardson said.

The County Board approved a budget amendment allowing the purchase to take place in the current fiscal year.

The purchase guarantees that the county can get the vehicles now in what has proven to be a difficult purchasing environment, with supply chain problems continuing to wreak havoc on plans by local units of government to acquire almost any type of vehicle.

Deputies will be able to respond to emergencies directly from their homes, the sheriff said, and the take-home vehicles will increase police visibility throughout the county.

Assigning a deputy his or her own vehicle allows the officer to work more efficiently, Baird said, with a familiar set of surroundings and eliminating the need for bringing and then removing items from the squad car at the beginning and end of every patrol shift.