Montgomery Set to Let Officers Outside County Use Cars for Personal Use

Tucked into the latest proposed labor agreement for police officers in Montgomery County is a new perk that is out of step with the practices of many other area police departments: More than 200 officers who live outside the county would be eligible to take their patrol cars home and use them for personal use.

The concession from the county, part of a contract that officials said is likely to be approved, came about during negotiations in which the union agreed to forgo a 4.25 percent cost-of-living raise scheduled to take effect in July.

Most police agencies in the Washington area allow at least some officers who live outside their jurisdictions to take their cars home, but they generally bar those officers from driving the vehicles for personal use outside their jurisdictions.

Montgomery officers would have full use of the cars in a 15-mile zone outside the county, and the department would pay for gasoline and maintenance. The policy would take effect July 1.

Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), the Montgomery County Council president and a frequent critic of the influential police union, said allowing officers who live outside the county to take the vehicles home undercuts the purpose of "take-home" patrol cars: to increase police presence within the county.

"This is a policy that Edward Bennett Williams, Johnnie Cochran and Clarence Darrow combined couldn't defend," he said.

Montgomery personnel officials who signed off on the plan said it should be viewed in the larger context of the cost-of-living concessions. Human Resources Director Joseph Adler said the $4.9 million saved by halting the cost-of-living increase would "far outweigh" the cost of the new car policy.

Officials of Lodge 35 of the Fraternal Order of Police declined to discuss the issue. Adler said the union supported the change.

With Montgomery facing a projected budget shortfall of more than $550 million, school system employees and other county workers have also agreed to forgo cost-of-living increases.

An estimated 205 Montgomery officers live within 15 miles of the county border and would be permitted to drive their county vehicles within that area for personal use.

A far smaller number who live outside the county are already permitted to drive their vehicles home. Those officers, including certain detectives and SWAT team members, have jobs in which they need access to the vehicles on short notice, often to get to crime scenes.

Andrews said the new car policy could weaken public safety in the county by giving officers an incentive to move farther away. Officers who live in the county and drive county vehicles while off-duty are required to monitor their radios and often respond to emergencies.