San Marcos council hears presentation on police take-home vehicle program and proposed fleet surcharge for secondary jobs

San Marcos Mayor Jane Heesen and the City Council heard a staff presentation June 3 on the police department's take-home vehicle program and a proposed surcharge for use of city vehicles during officers' secondary employment.

The presentation, led by Police Chief Stan Standridge, reviewed the department's long-standing take-home policy (in use since 1983), examples of officers responding while in assigned vehicles, operational benefits such as faster response to in-progress incidents, and financial and parking constraints if the council were to end the program. Standridge told the council there are currently 108 assigned take-home vehicles and 164 parking spaces at the department; after accounting for disabled spaces, reserved public spaces and special-purpose stalls, staff calculated a shortfall if all vehicles were required to remain at the department.

Chief Standridge described callout and ancillary responsibilities that rely on rapid officer availability, including SWAT, crisis negotiation, drones, robotics and K-9, and gave multiple officer accounts in which an officer in a take-home car…