New Hummers for Police
September 30th, 2008 | Published in Advice, Tips & Tutorials, Featured, News | 1 Comment
In a move that has angered the Australian Conservation Federation, Queensland police are considering upgrading their state wide fleet of 4WD wagons for black military styled Hummers.
Ian Stewart, Deputy Commissioner for specialist operations, recently confirmed that police were looking into various, economically sound options to replace their current fleet of Toyota LandCruisers.
“The price we are looking at is significantly cheaper than the LandCruiser - it is much cheaper than you would expect,” Stewart told the Courier mail.
“And we believe its efficiency is equal to or better than a LandCruiser for our purposes.”
Considering the cumbersome size of the model green groups have labelled the Hummer a notorious fuel-guzzler and debate the practicality of the car, deeming it to be unsuitable for police work.
The Australian Conservation Federation’s manager for climate change Tony Mohr says utilising the Hummer’s would be both detrimental to its surroundings and ignore the impact the car would have on the environment.
“There are far more fuel-efficient cars with lower green house gas emissions that are cheaper to buy and run, and that would more than fit the bill for an undercover police vehicle,” Mohr told the Courier Mail.
Although Stewart could not confirm when Queensland Police Service would make a decision regarding the replacement of the current Landcruisers, he remained optimistic that Hummers could be the right vehicle for the job.
“It is a large fleet with a large number of uses so we will devote a lot of attention to choosing what we use,” the Courier mail reports.
“If the price is right and it proves to stand up to the rigours of police work, it could well be the Hummer.”
Queensland Polices Q-Car fleet, a special fleet of unmarked vehicles intended to catch motorists breaching the rules of the road, will be the first to utilise the new Hummers.
Victorian police have also confirmed that they to will hit the road in five custom-built Hummers to try in an attempt to raise the visible influence of police on the streets.
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October 1st, 2008 at 8:10 pm (#)
I think this is a great idea. I know for a fact that the Hummer H3 is actually once of the most economical 4WD’s on the market. The Environmental parties always associate it with it’s bigger brother; the H2.
The H3 only has a small 5 cylinder motor and is no bigger than a Toyota Prado… it’s a significant downgrade from the thirsty Landcruisers the police currently use. The price of the cars is also significantly less…
I think the strength of the cars (which have a military design background) will also assist the police in the often dangerous tasks they have to perform on a daily basis.
It’s time for the people making the harsh comments to actually do their research before casting dispersions.