While there wasn’t a change in who will be providing police service to Lathrop residents in 2019 after the Lathrop City Council voted to continue to honor the longstanding contract, there were plenty of changes in how policing will be conducted moving forward.

Earlier this year the Lathrop Police Department earned the support of the council to move forward with plans to apply for a grant that will purchase the department a Tesla Model 3 that is equipped for police use – giving the department a fully electric vehicle that has acceleration capabilities that exceed that of a new Corvette.

In addition to providing a zippy new vehicle for the fleet, the purchase will also save the city money in the long run in fuel and maintenance costs.

And the Tesla wasn’t the only new vehicle that the City of Lathrop added for Lathrop Police Services over the course of the last year.

Police Chief Ryan Biedermann proudly displayed a custom-wrapped Ford F-150 pickup in October to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month – the first pickup truck for police use in the city – and earlier this month got authorization to move forward with purchasing a number of Chevy Tahoe SUVs for patrol purposes.

While the Tahoe will provide a more rugged durability and additional space for storing of items necessary for patrol use, the switch away from traditional sedans stemmed from an ongoing mechanical issue with one manufacturer and the discontinuation of a police model by the other.

But the new vehicles aren’t going to be housed in Lathrop for the immediate future.

Not long after the council decided against going with Tracy Police to provide contracted police services, negotiations between the city and the property owner of the building that has housed the police department for more than a decade began and the sides were unable to reach an agreement on the cost of the lease – prompting the city to approve the temporary relocation of police services to French Camp while work is done on a new, state-of-the-art police department that is set to be completed next year.

The new facility, which will be the first built specifically for law enforcement use after years of using other buildings that are converted for the purpose, is being constructed in River Islands which will eventually be home to more than 40,000 residents in just that neighborhood.

Biedermann, who spent a majority of his career working in Lathrop as a deputy and a dog handler, formally took over the department this year with the retirement of James Hood after serving in an interim capacity for almost a year.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.