SAPD responsible for keeping their patrol cars clean? (Cove: home, maintenance)

[SabresFanInSA]

I always though officers dropped their car off at the end of the day and by the next day it was clean and gassed up. Maybe Ive seen one too many episodes of "TJ Hooker" Today I saw an officer at Pirate's Cove washing his Tahoe and then vacuuming it out. Struck me as odd. Do they always have to do that themselves?

[SnappyBob]

That IS kind of odd. You would think that they would have more to do than hang out at the car wash vacuuming and washing their squad cars. Do they also have to take it home on their days off and change the oil? Could be some explanation I suppose. Perhaps he got it dirty somehow and wanted to clean it up before he took it back after his shift. Perhaps cleaning up something he didn't anyone else to see.

[Azure110]

Maybe some "evidence" spilled onto the floor or seats and he wanted it removed and figured "might as well wash it too".

[John911]

Sometimes these officers transport prisoners who have just been chased through yards, fields, dog poo and such.... sometimes they transport sick or drunks that puke in the backseat requiring quick clean up.

Each substation *used* to have a drive through car wash and fuel pumps, but I do not know if they still do.

[majormadmax]

First, SAPD officers do not take their vehicles home. They are used by all shifts (although not all the vehicles are used by every shift). They are parked at the substation between shifts, and no one cleans them out or washes them for the officers. If maintenance is required, the vehicle is taken downtown to the motor pool.

Secondly, all substations (except North) have a car wash so officers can run their vehicles thru it before their shift but during water restrictions they are limited in doing so to once a week. There is also a vacuum cleaner and a fuel station. As such, when we are volunteering out of that substation we sometimes run the dirtiest vehicles downtown to clean them.

That said, many officers take fairly good care of their patrol vehicles; but sometimes they do get dirty. Oddly enough, the one thing we usually find in the vehicles are sunflower seeds.

As for the officer you saw, he might have just had someone in the car that made a bit of a mess, so he thought he'd do the right thing and clean it up so the next officer wouldn't have to!

Cheers! M2

[Texas Cop]

OK, up onto my soapbox I step....Or maybe the officer felt he had a dirty vehicle and wanted to wash it......Believe it or not, an officers day does sometimes have a little "calm time" in it where the criminals are doing their business somewhere else and the officer isn't being sent to calls and can take a few minutes to clean his/her vehicle. Those vehicles are our offices for 8..10 or 12 hours a day. I've been a badge wearer for over 30 years now and on more then one occassion I've stopped at a "civilian" carwash and cleaned my vehicle, to include a good vaccuming. Tell me...when you compare an officer who is wearing a clean, pressed, good fitting uniform with an officer who is wearing a dirty, unpressed, poor fitting uniform...which officer do you think is more professional? IMO, same goes for our equipment. So for those CD'ers who immediately think that the officer is "hiding something" because he/she is cleaning their vehicle, walk in our shoes before jumping to the wrong conclusion. OK, stepping down now.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by Texas Cop

OK, up onto my soapbox I step....Or maybe the officer felt he had a dirty vehicle and wanted to wash it......Believe it or not, an officers day does sometimes have a little "calm time" in it where the criminals are doing their business somewhere else and the officer isn't being sent to calls and can take a few minutes to clean his/her vehicle. Those vehicles are our offices for 8..10 or 12 hours a day. I've been a badge wearer for over 30 years now and on more then one occassion I've stopped at a "civilian" carwash and cleaned my vehicle, to include a good vaccuming. Tell me...when you compare an officer who is wearing a clean, pressed, good fitting uniform with an officer who is wearing a dirty, unpressed, poor fitting uniform...which officer do you think is more professional? IMO, same goes for our equipment. So for those CD'ers who immediately think that the officer is "hiding something" because he/she is cleaning their vehicle, walk in our shoes before jumping to the wrong conclusion. OK, stepping down now.

First of all, thank you for your service. You made good points.

Second, just like cops probably make jokes about us "civilians", I think the "civilians" are allowed to make jokes as well towards cops. What I said earlier in this thread was that....a joke.

There could be many different reasons why that cop was washing his car. We will never know.

[txtea]

I remember back in the 70's and early 80's.......EVERY patrol car you see had a dent in both the front fenders. I was told by an officer this was caused by the car wash at the station. They had two doors that would slam shut as the patrol car went thru the wash and hit the fenders.

[SabresFanInSA]

Originally Posted by Texas Cop

OK, up onto my soapbox I step....Or maybe the officer felt he had a dirty vehicle and wanted to wash it......Believe it or not, an officers day does sometimes have a little "calm time" in it where the criminals are doing their business somewhere else and the officer isn't being sent to calls and can take a few minutes to clean his/her vehicle. Those vehicles are our offices for 8..10 or 12 hours a day. I've been a badge wearer for over 30 years now and on more then one occassion I've stopped at a "civilian" carwash and cleaned my vehicle, to include a good vaccuming. Tell me...when you compare an officer who is wearing a clean, pressed, good fitting uniform with an officer who is wearing a dirty, unpressed, poor fitting uniform...which officer do you think is more professional? IMO, same goes for our equipment. So for those CD'ers who immediately think that the officer is "hiding something" because he/she is cleaning their vehicle, walk in our shoes before jumping to the wrong conclusion. OK, stepping down now.

That makes perfect sense. It just struck me as odd that an officer was doing it himself.

[Texas Cop]

Didn't mean to insult anyone, honestly just take issue with people always thinking badly of police officers without knowing anything about the job. And your right, we kid about civilians so its perfectly ok for civilians to kid about us. But remember, not all of us are abusing our authority and most of us try to be fair and impartial.