{"id":3561,"date":"2007-09-08T11:54:39","date_gmt":"2007-09-08T15:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/v3\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2008-09-11T11:56:21","modified_gmt":"2008-09-11T15:56:21","slug":"tyrone-borough-police-dept-shows-off-new-charger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/?p=3561","title":{"rendered":"Tyrone Borough Police Dept. shows off new Charger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nTyrone PD\u2019s fleet
\nThe Tyrone Borough Police Department has completed its fleet of new vehicles, opting to go with new Dodge Chargers over the more common Ford Crown Victoria. Police chief Joe Beachem, left, said the vehicles have been more reliable than the \u201cCrown Vics\u201d and are comparable in price. Officer Matt Lutz, right, agreed. Police department secretary Linda Montanaro, center, said she likes the department\u2019s new SUV, a Dodge Durango. (The Daily Herald\/Rob Carolus)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Dodge Charger, well-known due to its prominence in the popular 80s TV series, \u201cThe Dukes of Hazzard,\u201d has always had a reputation for being fast, stylish and rugged, so last year, DaimlerChrysler reintroduced the \u201cmuscle car\u201d with a sleek, new look for the 21st century.
\nAlong with the \u201cregular Charger\u201d that\u2019s available to anyone who wants one, DaimlerChrysler also released a suped-up police cruiser version in 2006, and since then, police agencies all around America have been taking a close look at the new option.
\nThe Tyrone Borough Police Department, which now owns two of the Charger police cruisers, is among those agencies that decided to go in a different direction with their cruiser selection, and so far, they\u2019re very pleased with the results.
\n\u201cWe decided to try one last year,\u201d said Tyrone Borough Police Chief Joe Beachem. \u201cAs far as price, it was pretty comparable to what we would\u2019ve spent \u2014 it was only about $600 more than the \u2018Crown Vic\u2019 (Ford Crown Victoria) that most police agencies, including us, have been using for years.
\n\u201cThe thing was, we were having ongoing maintenance issues with the Crown Vics, so when came time to purchase a new cruiser, we decided to give the Charger a chance.\u201d
\nBeachem said they couldn\u2019t be more happy with the decision as their first Charger performed at such a high level.
\nUnlike the civilian version, the Charger police cruiser features upgraded heavy-duty brakes, a severe-duty cooling system, police-performance electronic stability program, police performance-tuned steering and a gear shifter that is mounted on the steering column instead of in the center console. In place of the center console, Dodge has equipped the police edition with a steel plate appropriate for mounting radio equipment, computers and controllers for lights and sirens.
\nThe police model also features a 340 hp Hemi V8, powerful enough to accelerate the car from 0 to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds and to a top speed of 150 mph. In Michigan State Police and California Highway Patrol testing, the Charger V8 easily outperformed all other pursuit vehicles in acceleration, cornering and braking. The only car to perform better in braking was the Dodge Magnum, which stopped slightly faster in some tests.
\nThe new Charger worked out so well for the Tyrone Police that they picked up another new one this year.
\n\u201cThe price for the Charger police cruiser actually came down when we acquired our second new one this year,\u201d Chief Beachem said. \u201cWhen the Crown Vics, which were having problems with anyway, became more expensive, it was even easier to decide to go with another Charger.
\n\u201cOur officers seem to be pretty happy with the change.\u201d
\nJust ask Officer Greg Ray.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a better vehicle,\u201d Ray said. \u201cWe were having a lot of problems with the rear ends in the Crown Vics so I\u2019m personally very happy with the change.\u201d
\nOfficer Matt Lutz added, \u201cThe Chargers definitely handle a lot better than the Fords.\u201d
\nThe Tyrone Police also acquired a Dodge Durango SUV to round out its new stable of vehicles and Beachem said its gone a long way to improving the department\u2019s ability to respond, especially in bad weather and \u201coff-road\u201d situations.
\n\u201cWith the Durango, we\u2019re able to get into places we just couldn\u2019t get to before,\u201d the chief said. \u201cIn previous winters, there have been instances where, due to bad road conditions, we\u2019ve gotten stuck responding to calls. The SUV solved that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tyrone PD\u2019s fleet The Tyrone Borough Police Department has completed its fleet of new vehicles, opting to go with new Dodge Chargers over the more common Ford Crown Victoria. Police chief Joe Beachem, left, said the vehicles have been more reliable than the \u201cCrown Vics\u201d and are comparable in price. Officer Matt Lutz, right, agreed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}