The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is spending more than $2 million for a slew of new vehicles to ensure every patrol deputy has one to drive home at the end of a shift.

The sheriff believes giving each patrol deputy a vehicle will add years to vehicle lifespans and better position deputies to respond to emergencies.

But Sheriff Shane Nelson’s new vehicle plan bucks conventional wisdom about fleet budgeting, in which purchases are staggered so many vehicles don’t end their useful lives at the same time and need to be replaced all at once. The change may also increase maintenance costs, raise the county’s insurance liability and lead to union claims of underpayment.

For fiscal year 2022, the sheriff’s office ordered 32 vehicles at a total cost of $1.1 million. The vehicles — all 2021 and 2022 model Dodge Durangos, Chargers, Ram 1500s, F-150s, F-250s and a Toyota Sienna — were purchased new from Portland-area dealerships, according to sale contracts released to The Bulletin through public records requests.

Outfitting the vehicles with police electronics, partition cages, vinyl decals, lights and sirens cost the sheriff’s office an additional $1 million.

Prior to this year, the sheriff’s office employed a system where two deputies shared one vehicle.

Under this system, the vehicle was in use 12 hours every day, which a sheriff’s spokesman said caused mileage to add up fast. Under the old system, where shared vehicles were used every day of the week, vehicles needed to replaced every two to three years, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Jayson Janes wrote to The Bulletin.

Sheriff’s patrol deputies work 12-hour shifts, four days on and four days off.

The old vehicle plan involved deputies dropping off their car partner at home every four days.

“This would work smoothly as long as nothing happened at shift change,” Janes wrote to The Bulletin. “There have been a number of times close to shift change that major crashes or other incidents occurred and the night shift deputies would be committed to the incident so the oncoming dayshift deputies had to find another way to come to work and find a vehicle so they could start their shift.”

The Bend Police Department does not have take-home cruisers and vehicles are retired at 100,000 miles. Reaching that figure takes three to five years, according to Bend spokeswoman Lt. Juli McConkey.

The Bend Police Department grew its fleet by two vehicles in fiscal year 2021-2022. Thirty-one other vehicles were additionally purchased to replace retired vehicles. That figure is twice as high as an ordinary year because no vehicles were purchased during the first year of the pandemic, McConkey said.

Janes said the sheriff’s new vehicle plan is inspired by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office’s assigned vehicle accountability program, initiated in 2000. Janes said Clackamas officials found that assigning every deputy a vehicle increased the life of the vehicles — from approximately 70,000 miles to approximately 120,000 miles — improved deputy efficiency, reduced response times to critical incidents and enhanced the visibility of law enforcement in the community.

Janes said Clackamas deputies reported feeling a sense of ownership toward their assigned vehicles, meaning they take extra care of it.

“Deputies can also be held individually accountable for failing to ensure their vehicles receive appropriate maintenance and minor repairs eventually reducing the vehicle’s service life,” Janes wrote.

If there are cost savings with the new plan, there will likely be new costs, as well.

Having twice as many police cars on the street will likely increase maintenance costs. And since officers driving their patrol vehicle are technically working, the sheriff’s new take-home cruiser system could lead to increased insurance costs and open the office to Fair Labor Standards Act claims. The sheriff’s office’s contract with the 911 service district requires the office to maintain in-car radios based upon the numbers of radios, meaning that bill will also likely go up.

And even if the sheriff’s office is able to extend the useful life of vehicles, 32 vehicles purchased at the same time will still likely reach the end of their service lives at the same time, as well. Public agencies typically replace the same small number of vehicles each time, so budgets are predicable and there are always fresh vehicles.

The sheriff’s new vehicle plan could also be aimed at improving morale. Nelson has clashed openly with his deputy union.

This summer, a fired former deputy prevailed in a federal civil rights claim and the county settled for a half-million dollars with a former deputy who accused Nelson of gender discrimination.