Manteca Police within a year should have 20 new police vehicles.

And it is thanks in a large part to Measure Q.

There will be 15 new patrol vehicles. Ten will be Dodge Durango SUVs and five will be Chevy Tahoe SUVs.

The remaining five will be unmarked vehicles.

Police Chief Stephen Schluer indicated that while the Ford F-150 pickup patrol units are effective, they have a wider turn radius than the SUVs.

The City Council, in keeping with promises made during the campaign that led to passage of the temporary 20-year Measure Q three-quarter cent sales tax, included $1.6 million in the current fiscal year budget for police vehicles.

That is in addition to $510,000 earmarked in January to order five of the 10 Durango SUVs Manteca Police will receive.

The $510,000, along with $1.1 million for a replacement fire engine, was earmarked in January on the fact voters had passed the tax. The money was taken from reserves and will be backfilled with Measure Q receipts.

The $1.6 million was considered one-time Measure Q funding.

Going forward, city management is establishing a more robust vehicle replacement program so several police vehicles can be replaced annually as they start becoming problematic due to repairs.

The fully equipped Durango police units cost $110,00 each while the Chevy Tahoes are $120,000.

The city a year ago, purchased two patrol units and two police motorcycles using $351,319 from the state’s share of cannabis taxes via a law enforcement grant program administered by the CHP.

One of those patrol vehicles that went into service earlier this year, may be totaled.

It is one of three heavily damaged by suspects including at the In-n-Out officer involved shooting and one rammed in January by a man who a short time later jumped to his death from the Main Street overcrosssing of the 120 Bypass.

Altogether, Manteca Police have two patrol units that are being assessed as to whether they should be totaled and a third that was totaled.

There are currently 18 patrol vehicles.

When all 15 new patrol units are in Manteca, those that have started to have problematic maintenance issues with excess of 150,000 miles on them will be removed from service.

Manteca eventually will end up with around 30 patrol units after taking delivery of all of the vehicles and culling ones that are now problematic.

The five Durangos ordered in January are expected to be received in the near future. It takes upwards of six months or more for police specification vehicles to be delivered.

The department a year ago had a situation where it wasn’t uncommon for police shifts to be short one — and on rare occasions two — patrol units.

They either were already in the shop or they wouldn’t turn on when officers got behind the wheel to start their shifts.

That forced officers to double up.

In term, it reduced the area the police could cover.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com