In South Pasadena, new police cars are patrolling to reduce crime and cut emissions at the same time.
The South Pasadena Police Department on Monday unveiled what the city says is the nation’s first all-electric police vehicle fleet, including 10 Tesla Model Ys for patrol and 10 Model 3s for detectives and administration.
The city will pay $1.85 million in total for the electrified fleet, officials said in a statement. More than half of the project’s cost is being covered by several partners who have agreed to build city-run electric vehicle charging stations and emergency response facilities.
“This transition reflects the city’s vision for a sustainable future, based on both sound fiscal management and environmental protection,” Mayor Evelyn Zneimer said in the release. “We will have a 21st century police force that is safe, clean and saves taxpayers money.”
According to the Electrify South Pasadena website, the new zero-emission police force will save the city more than $400,000 in fuel and maintenance costs over 10 years.
Fuel costs alone were about $4,355 per year for the department, compared with an estimated cost of $336 per year to charge all the new cars, according to a September 2022 staff report.
The fluctuating cost of gasoline could impact the city’s economy, said Sergeant Tony Abdalla of the South Pasadena Police Department. The $312,282 figure was calculated using gasoline prices in September 2022, which were $5.27 a gallon in California, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Gasoline prices have declined since then, falling to $4.47 a gallon this month.
Fuel savings aren’t the only benefit of zero-emission vehicles.
The 2022 report presenting the plan to city council noted “significant maintenance and reliability issues” with the gasoline fleet.
One gasoline-powered police vehicle overheated during a chase. Another was disabled by a blown head gasket. Still another had electrical and brake problems. Two had air conditioning problems, one with a note that the vehicle’s air conditioning was “insufficient” for its assigned canine officer.
South Pasadena police had been thinking for years about replacing its fleet of 22 vehicles, six of which were out of service. “We were looking for a creative solution,” Abdalla said.
The department looked at the 35 other police departments across the country that had added electric vehicles to see if it was feasible to go all-electric. However, according to the city, no other department had made the transition to electric as a whole.
The new vehicles require new infrastructure, which has led to the construction of 34 Level 2 electric vehicle chargers at South Pasadena City Hall, funded by Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready program. An additional Level 3 charger, which can fully charge an electric vehicle in about an hour, will also be installed in the police station parking lot.
The city also stands to benefit from revenue generated by 14 public electric vehicle chargers at City Hall, as well as Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits from the state Air Resources Board, which could translate into thousands of dollars per month.
A solar and battery backup storage system provided by the Clean Power Alliance’s Power Ready program protects the department from power outages and grid failures.
The project is expected to reduce smog-forming carbon dioxide emissions by 1,850 metric tons by 2030, far exceeding the city’s current plan to reduce police department emissions by 23 metric tons by 2030.
The switch to the Tesla fleet reduces by 10% the city’s overall emissions reductions needed to meet the state’s 2030 climate action plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels statewide.
City Councilman Michael Cacciotti is perhaps the most vocal advocate for clean air alternatives.
The genesis of the plan goes back two decades, Cacciotti said, to when he read studies about the harms of air pollution and decided to trade in his sports car, asking car dealers: “What’s the cleanest car you have available?”
Mr. Cacciotti, who is also vice president of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said he bought a Toyota Prius that is still running strong after 20 years and 188,000 miles. It recently needed its first-ever brake and rotor change, a testament to how low maintenance hybrid and electric cars require, he said.
Protecting public health has been a driving force behind the change, Cacciotti said. Police cars idle as officers issue tickets at traffic stops or respond to emergency calls. Meanwhile, gasoline-powered cars release emissions that impact the health of children and seniors and worsen the climate crisis. “We can’t ignore these things,” he said.
Now that the infrastructure for urban electric vehicles is in place, Cacciotti said, he plans to replace the city’s fire trucks with zero-emission versions in the coming years.
But South Pasadena isn’t the first city to embrace zero-emission vehicles. The city of Irvine recently added a Cybertruck to its fleet, but it won’t be used for patrol, and Anaheim added Teslas as part of a pilot program in April.
Meanwhile, tune-ups, oil changes and spark plug replacements are a thing of the past at the South Pasadena Police Department. Reducing long-term maintenance costs is part of the cost-saving plan.
In preparing for the project over the past four years, Abdalla said, city officials had to reconsider accidents involving police cars.
The Tesla Model Y and Model 3 are among the safest vehicles on the market, earning the highest possible rating from the Insurance Institute of Higher Safety.
“We made this decision because we wanted the safest, most capable vehicle for the job,” the South Pasadena Police Department wrote in an X-rated post.
The department’s announcement earned Tesla’s North American X account a handshake emoji.
But Tesla’s safety features, like lane-keeping assist and emergency stopping, could backfire on patrol officers when they’re chasing a suspect and have to weave through traffic at high speeds or maneuver into a fleeing car, forcing it to spin or stop.
For maneuvers that involve hitting fleeing cars, Abdalla said, it’s difficult to test because it would require hitting a car. Lane-keeping assist can be turned off in the Tesla’s settings, and the department hasn’t had any problems since testing the police department’s first Tesla last December.
Abdalla said he was optimistic that the experiment would be successful.
“It’s been years of work,” he said, “and it’s exciting to see this project come to fruition.”
