Earle police cars need cages
Earle police cars need cages
City says officers require better protection
news@theeveningtimes.com
Now that they have new patrol cars, Earle Police Chief John Couch is asking the city to install window bars in the vehicles after an inmate kicked out a window while in custody.
Earle recently bought three used police vehicles from the State Highway Police to refresh its fleet, but none of the cars came equipped with window bars.
“This is something that has happened before,” Couch told the city council. “We’ve had them kick our windows. But we’ve never had anybody kick them out before. So this is something that will protect the city from having to replace windows.”
Couch said adding the window bars is matter of officer safety and for the public’s continued safety as well. “One of the reasons I am stressing this is because I transport prisoners,” Couch said. “On transports they are trying to bust the seat belts and climb in the front of the car. Those cars needs need prisoner partitions and need to have window bars.
It is for the safety of the officers and for the safety of the person being transported.”
Couch said he would get some bids for the equipment and bring them back to the council for approval.
On a related matter, Couch said the city has a problem with residences not having numbers posted to identify their street location which is causing problems with responding to calls.
“I don’t know if we have an ordinance on this or not,” Couch said. “But it is a major problem. We know the street but we don’t know where the house is because nobody has addresses posted on mailboxes or their home.”
Couch asked that the city either enact an ordinance, or if there is one on the books, to enforce it so law enforcement, fire, and emergency responders can find them.
“If we do have an ordinance for that, I would like to see it enforced,” Couch said. “If not, I would like to see the city look over the problem and come up with a policy. That’s a safety thing for them as well as for us. If they just say Third Street, I have no idea where. So it is very important for them to have their addresses posted for medical and police if we have to respond.”
By Mark Randall
