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“The big thing is, officers have to be qualified with whatever they’re carrying. For me to carry this handgun, I have to qualify at least yearly,” Sluder said. “For rifles, shotguns, it’s the same thing.”

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Years ago, he said, the radar was in a big box on the dashboard, the console concealed the radio, and the first eyewitness in-car system was a VHS recorder locked in a box.

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“When I first started, we had to mark patrol cars, they ran 24 hours a day, and we ‘hot-seated’ them, “Sluder said. “One officer would get out, and another officer would get in. Now that we have issued cars, the officers know what’s in their car, there’s not anybody else in there, it’s their responsibility. If I use stuff out of my first aid kit, I have to get it replenished. If I’ve put my spare roll of paper in my printer, I’ve got to get another one.”

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“It’s been a long adventure, and we finally got it here,” Sluder said. “This will help the service that we’re able to provide to our citizens and visitors, because we’ve got vehicles that are dependable, that are in good shape.”

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“You could go and buy a Ford Explorer and drive it for the next 15/20 years. But in law enforcement the vehicles don’t last that long just because of everything that we do with them,” Sluder said. “We may get in and out of our car as many times in five years as you might in 10 or 15 years with your personal car.”

“In the heat of the moment, when your stress level is way up here, you need to be able to get to something, and you ain’t got time to be digging through,” he said. “Before, all of this stuff would have been mounted in that center console, so this has been a real savings for that.”

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The front seat area provides access to controls and mobile computers that allows officers to print tickets, record witness statements, or pull up records while on the scene. Also up front is the radio. Emergency gear and guns sit near the center console within arm’s reach.

Whether it’s a small town or big city, cop cars get a lot more wear and tear than our day-to-day vehicles. In addition, the constant acceleration and stops rapidly wear them down.

Law enforcement officers rely heavily on their vehicles. Canton police depended on their vehicles well beyond the norm after Hurricane Fred devastated the town and flooded the police station in 2021.

“That’s including all the equipment. It’s not just the car, it’s the blue lights, the siren, the center consoles, all the equipment that goes in the car,” Sluder said. “Once we get this fleet on the road and going, the old fleet will get sold. That funding will go back into paying for the in-car camera systems and things of that nature. That way we’ve only spent the money to buy the car and the upfit.”

The new Fords are built to be more accessible to the officer, as well as add a layer of comfort, crucial for someone in their car for 12 hours a day.

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An addition specific to the new fleet sits in the back of each vehicle — drawers to stash evidence, along with stashing the ‘brain’ of their electronics, whether that be the siren system or the radar. That storage frees up space in the front, providing officers quicker response times, Sluder said.

A mobile office, an armory on four wheels, the “cop cockpit” and a lifeline are among the descriptions Canton Police Chief Scott Sluder offers for the fleet of Ford Explorers issued to his officers.

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“Ford’s been building police cars for a long time. And they’ve kind of got it figured out,” Sluder said. “The seat is made to take the beating of people going in and out of it and all the equipment that we wear rubbing over it. And we can wear a seatbelt out in a heartbeat.”

“This was their everything from the time they started the shift to the time they ended their shift,” Sluder said. “They’re a mobile toolbox. They’re a mobile office. They’re an indispensable tool to have.”

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“We have two of them that are issued to officers right now. And we’re getting ready, hopefully this week, to finish issuing out all of them,” Sluder said.

The town has been in the process of upgrading its fleet of six Durangos and 12 Chargers to 19 new Ford Explorers and one truck for the past couple of years. The lifespan of a cop car is typically five years. In March 2022, after the prior fleet had carried its fair share of action, the department put in the letter of intent to upgrade the cars. The last of the fleet came in this year.

The new fleet’s polished design was done with the input of the police staff, with the aim of improving efficiency and safety.

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Sluder said his first police vehicle was a 1989 Crown Victoria, complete with the siren drilled in the top right above the driver’s seat.

It’s also important that officers check lights, siren and emergency supplies when they get in the vehicle, so they know they are equipped for any situation.

“When the siren was going, you couldn’t hear nothing else whatsoever,” Sluder said. “Now the siren’s speaker is hidden behind the front bumper and behind the grille. So that sound is projected outwards instead of it coming down inside of the cab.”

“On the back we chose to go with blue and yellow for higher visibility, so that it breaks that blue up, and it kind of maybe will catch motorist’s attention a little bit better when they’re coming up to the back of the car,” Sluder said. “Because we’ve had enough tragedies here in our county with the two troopers that we lost from being hit on the interstate.”

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