Police’s fleet team work through lockdown to provide response officers with new cars

Staffordshire Police’s response officers will shortly be taking to the county’s roads in a new set of wheels.

The county’s Joint Emergency Transport hub have been working throughout lockdown to get the new intermediate response cars ready for the force’s three hubs – replacing existing vehicles that have reached the end of their life as emergency service cars.

Our in-house team of auto-electrical engineers have been stripping down and building up these vehicles over a number of weeks and months – with it taking 37 hours for each car to become road ready from the moment it first pulls into our warehouse.

Our teams focus on removing seats and bumpers whilst positioning the lighting pods for greatest effect. They also design and produce their own lighting pods to ensure the best visibility for the crews.

Staffordshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Simon Tweats said: “Our officers have been anticipating the arrival of these new vehicles for a while and it’s great that we can finally start getting them on the roads.

“They’ll allow our crews to respond to a variety of calls in the safest and most efficient way and the work our team at the Joint Emergency Transport hub has done in altering these vehicles to meet the unique and rigorous demands of policing is great.

“It’s vital, particularly in these unprecedented times, that our fleet continues to be in the best possible shape but I must stress that we’ve not increased the size of the fleet and these cars are all part of a measured replacement programme which enables our response officers to have the right tools to keep our communities safe.”