Will County Gazette

At the Nov. 1 Joliet City Council meeting, council discussed its shortage of law enforcement vehicles. The city needs 10 vehicles right away and 15 next year but Ford Motor Company is having problems completing orders.

Council learned that the city's order for new squad cars was part of the roughly 20,000 orders that were cancelled by Ford as the automobile manufacturer took too many orders and was unable to deliver. Councilmember Larry Hug said that over 60% of law enforcement vehicles across the nation are from Ford and many municipalities had their orders cancelled.

“It really goes back to Ford Motor Company,” Hug said. “And of course, we always use Ford Motor Company because they are the most popular but also many places, private businesses as well as municipalities and public organizations try to stay with one manufacturer because there's all kinds of support that needs to be done.”

Joliet City Manager James Capparelli discussed how the city spent a lot of time and effort trying to get 25 additional cars into the budget so that they could get them as soon as possible. He said he requested emergency authority in the budget to buy replacement cars. 

The city worked with a local dealership to get some new cars for roughly the same amount. The order will be a mix of Ford and Dodge vehicles, different than the city’s normal fully Ford fleet, but the dealership assured the city that it will have access to any necessary fixes or upgrades in the system. The council gave emergency permission to purchase the cars outside of the approved budget.