‘It definitely attracts attention’

The Carthage Police Department’s new patrol car is definitely turning heads.

Patrol Officer Chad Harris won the privilege of driving CPD’s DWI enforcement car because he had the largest number of “quality, prosecutable DWI arrests,” last year, according to Carthage Police Chief Greg Dagnan.

Harris said people notice the car and the special graphics, designed by Carthage High School student Jesse McConnell, when he comes to a stop.

“It’s great to have something that everything is top of the line,” Harris said. “Every time you get out of it people are asking you about it which, public awareness is such a big part of it and it’s definitely working. It’s just great to have something that’s top of the line and you can be proud of.”

Carthage Police have had the new car for almost two months. Representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Division of Highway Safety and the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety were in Carthage on Thursday to officially present the car to Carthage officers.

CPD won the car in a drawing that included the 85 law enforcement agencies that participated in all five drunk driving enforcement campaigns held between August 2008 and July 2009, according to Christopher Luebbert, with MoDOT.

“Impaired driving, buzzed driving, drunk driving they’re all the same,” Luebbert said. “It’s one of the most-often committed and deadliest crimes in the nation. But one way the highway safety office has partnered with a number of agencies across the state, specifically with the patrol and local law enforcement and education folks are through DWI enforcement projects. The highway safety office partners with state, county and local law enforcement agencies providing grant funds for troopers and deputies and officers to do DWI enforcement to deter and remove impaired drivers from our roadways.”

Dagnan said Carthage Police made 175 arrests for drunk driving in 2009 and an additional 170 arrests for possession of intoxicants by minors. Dagnan said DWI enforcement is part of officers’ daily patrols, the department put in 143 hours of overtime dedicated to DWI enforcement.

Dagnan said CPD takes pride in taking impaired drivers off the road.

“So far this year, in January we’ve had 18 drunk driving arrests,” Dagnan said. “We are committed to it and we were already committed to it without the car. This car is just really something that we can use that will help us in our enforcement efforts. One of the ways we decided to use this car to its best capability is the officer, every quarter, who arrest the most quality, prosecutable DWIs will get the car to drive. We are a department that shares cars, we’ve got some good cars and we’ve got some cars that, wow, you really don’t want to drive them unless you have to.

“So this is actually quite a deal to get not only a brand new car that you can drive but a fully equipped car with the nicest computers and safety equipment and radios and video equipment, all provided by MoDOT, so thanks for that.”

Dagnan said the equipment on this car is tailored to drunk driving enforcement, but the officers in the car are still regular patrol officers and respond to all calls while on patrol.

Harris said all the equipment, including the video equipment, makes the car safer for the officer and even for the person being investigated for an offense.

“We have a lot of extra lighting equipment on this car because most of what we do, we’ll have people out of the car on the road way so it has a lot of extra lighting to make sure people can see us,” Harris said. “The light bar is one of the most visible light bars you can get. Also it’s got the camera that’s integrated into the dash, a brand new computer. It’s more conducive to impaired driving enforcement. After you arrest someone, there’s a camera that watches him or her while they are back there. It’s probably the safest atmosphere for something like this. Without turning your head around, you can see your prisoner the whole ride back to the station in the screen on the dash.”