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LAPD Is Not Using the Electric BMWs It Announced In 2016 (cbslocal.com)
mi shares a report from CBS Los Angeles: "In a 2016 well-choreographed press conference, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck got out of an electric BMW driven by Mayor Garcetti to tout the city's ambitious project [to provide electric cars for the department]," reports CBS Los Angeles. "The cost: $10.2 million, which includes charging stations." However, the cars have seen very little use. With the monthly lease payment of a little more than $418, one vehicle ends up costing taxpayers over $15 a mile to use. Some of the use they do get is improper too, alleges CBS Los Angeles, citing footage captured from several hidden cameras. "We followed someone after leaving the downtown police garage; they went to the drive-through at Yoshinoya," reports CBS. "On another day, someone drove from downtown LA to Loyola Marymount University in West LA, picked up someone who appeared to be a student, and went to lunch." The deputy chief is looking into what CBS found and says the cars are to be used for business only.
Did anyone think they'd be anything but taxpayer-funded toys for thugs?
Stop the freaking presses!
Yes, electric BMWs are a wasteful boondoggle, but using one to get lunch doesn't even cause the police abuse meter to twitch.
If it was NYPD in the 1970s, they'd be using the cars to pimp out their own hookers to drug dealers...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
According to TFA, the Department's employees explained their reluctance to use the environment-friendly vehicles by their low mileage:
Strange — though low in comparison with a gasoline- or (especially) diesel-powered car, the distance seems quite sufficient for a city's police car. Do they really ever need to exceed 50 miles in a day?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
In an eight-shift, yes a cop will drive a lot more than 50 miles.
Yes, electric BMWs are a wasteful boondoggle, but using one to get lunch doesn't even cause the police abuse meter to twitch.
It does if it costs taxpayers $15/mile to operate.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
It doesn't cost $15/mile to operate. The lease payment divided by the number of miles driven on average is $15/mile.
Isn't this little government, or maybe middle government?
big government would be the feds. LAPD is city level.
It doesn't cost $15/mile to operate. The lease payment divided by the number of miles driven on average is $15/mile.
Exactly. By adding to the total distance, driving to lunch pushed down the average dollar per mile cost, and likely actually saved the taxpayers money.
These journalists should learn how to do basic math, and stop pestering the police.
No this is LA it is big Government. The LA budget is 8.7 billion dollars which puts it ahead of 10 States.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
That's from the battery. See what I did there?
Obviously, driving down the lease cost per mile wouldn't actually change anything itself. However, given that they're already paying the lease on the electric cars.. any use of electric over gasoline would be a savings to the taxpayers.
But it DOES get much more Smugness per mile.
Humans are wasteful, period. I can give private-sector horror-stories also (Intel for example). If we burn everything that's wasteful or mismanaged, civilization would be charcoal. It's the "rid-because-imperfect" fallacy.
By the same logic, we would dismantle Wells Fargo Bank entirely after they massively tacked on service charges without asking customer permission.
Mistakes get made. Confess, fix, learn, and move on.
Table-ized A.I.
the LAPD did this about a decade ago when they switched motorcycles from Harley Davidson to BMW. BMW insisted the sticker price was justified as it represented increased reliability and longevity. the LA Times however found in 2016 that BMW motorcycles actually required more frequent, and more expensive maintenance. But hey, if our local rich kids and celebrities can have BMW, then god damnit so can our cops.
Good people go to bed earlier.
And the LA population is 4 million, which puts it ahead of 24 States. Combine the city's budget with California's, on a per capita basis, and it wouldn't even break into the upper third of State budgets.
So, what?
The difference is when the government wastes money the taxpayers lose out. When the private sector wastes money the company goes out of business (or the government bails them out, but that's less than half the time).
No, because it's relative.
Table-ized A.I.
The difference is when the government wastes money the taxpayers lose out. When the private sector wastes money the company goes out of business (or the government bails them out, but that's less than half the time).
It depends how competitive the market sector is, and how long the wastefulness continues.
California has a 6 billion dollar budget surplus and a sizable rainy day fund. It has more debt than any other state because it has twice as many people as any other state, obviously... and also direct democracy where voters keep voting for bond measures.
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wait till you feel the effects of big corp.
Yeah, but give them a BMW, and they start getting their lunch from fancy-pants foreign chains. Think of the devastating effect on Dunkin Donuts. That is improper.
" With the monthly lease payment of a little more than $418, one vehicle ends up costing taxpayers over $15 a mile to use."
Duh!
Well if they drive only 1 mile per month, it will even cost 418€ per mile.
It's only costing $15 per mile because they are not using them the rest of the time they aren't fetching lunch.
*looks upwards* When was the slashcode last updated?
So they run a $6BN surplus each year, yet have insane debt levels?
Which is it, are they "banking" $6BN/yr or are they increasing their debt by spending more than they have? Hard to see how they are doing both simultaneously. Any idea what California does with their "surplus" each year? (Note - as soon as they spend it, it's no longer "surplus", it's "spending".)
Ken
By adding to the total distance, driving to lunch pushed down the average dollar per mile cost, and likely actually saved the taxpayers money.
I apologize if that's a joke, but I don't think that's how math works.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
The original purpose of the expense was for the vehicles to be used as "get around" cars. From the 2016 article:
"'The i3s will be used in a "non-emergency"' capacity — in other words, you won't likely see them engaged in high-speed police chases, but rather for basic department transportation needs and community outreach."
So they're not going to be used for beats and thus won't have the massive amounts of miles as the Crown Victorias, Taurus, Chargers, or Explorers. Moreover, you have to compare the EV mileage logs against the mileage logs of the internal combustion engine get-around cars. Lastly, with 21 police stations within the LAPD, that's FIVE of these vehicles per station and that's even if they were evenly distributed and not just placed where you could most easily install the EVSEs. That's a lot. There's very little gettting-around needed daily for most staff, so don't expect these to be used constantly.
Lastly, there's the cost of installing the Level 2 chargers. For non-fleet chargers (ChargePoint point of sale stations), you're looking at $4k-$7k per piece of hardware depending on your bulk negotiating skills. Then there's the cost of trenching out power, installation, and (god forbid) new actual electrical infrastructure like a transformer. That adds up quick.
To me, it looks like someone thought this would be a great feather in the cap for the Department, but I don't see any malfeasance. Public departments with large fleets are facing *massive* pressure to switch to hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The public agencies really want to show their environmental sustainability (per public pressures) and the auto manufacturers know that only fleets can sufficiently bolster their alt-fuel divisions until the demand for those vehicles expand beyond the West Coast.
$8.7 billion would put LA right in the middle of the Fortune 500, if it was "revenue". We talk about Big Business being the Fortune 500; well, the city of LA has a budget that would put it right on-par with Big Business, and it has the ability to not only create regulations and laws that affect business and individuals, but also enforce those regulations and laws via threat of force. Big Government kicks in nicely for LA.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Their debt levels are not insane, but are rather normal. As of 2016, their state revenues were 155 billion a year, their state debt was 151 billion.
Are you on drugs? CA's (where I live) debt is FOUR HUNDRED BILLION. Where the fuck did you get $155 BN?
Per capita debt has reached over $10,000.00
Total state debt (state / county / local / etc) is ESTIMATED at $1.3 TRILLION (as of 2015). This number is relevant because the state is ultimately responsible for it. When a city goes insolvent the parent county must absorb it. When a county goes insolvent (hasn't happened yet, but it's coming) the state will have to absorb it. That's going to be awful interesting when it actually happens.
If you don't consider $400B/$1.3T excessive, I'd like some of whatever you are smoking.
Honestly, I suspect you are one of those fucking liberals who just pulls numbers out of their ass, like old MoonBeam and his "estimates" on the bullet train which have turned out to be nowhere even in the vicinity of reality.
I took a few minutes to actually look up the figures from some reputable sources.
By the way, that $400BN number comes from that liberal rag the SF Chronicle so you can't even accuse it of political bias. Unfunded liabilities are DEBT. If you contractually promise someone a pension you MUST provide that pension, doesn't matter if the money has to be paid out today or in 10 years, it MUST be accounted for.