Academy Gets Old Patrol Cars for $1

Simi Valley has agreed to sell a pair of worn-out patrol cars to the Ventura County Police and Sheriff’s Reserve Officer Academy for $1 apiece.

The City Council voted 5 to 0 Monday to sell the well-used Chevrolet Caprice cruisers, complete with shotgun racks and flashing lights, to the academy at a huge discount.

The city usually takes cruisers off the street after 85,000 miles because they become too costly to repair and are no longer fit for duty, said Sgt. Bob Gardner, a department spokesman.

“They’re like taxis and other heavy-use vehicles,” he said. “They’re constantly on the road. They’re being driven by several different drivers with different driving habits, they’re driven under high-stress conditions--heavy braking, a lot of stop and go, a lot of idling.”

One cruiser is a 1992 model with 90,300 miles, the other a 1993 with 98,395 miles. Each would be worth about $3,300 at auction stripped of its police gear, although with the gun racks and light bars they are valued at $6,700 apiece, Gardner said.

The city decided to sell the cars at a token price because the sheriff’s academy trains Simi Valley reserve officers at no charge, Gardner said. “We’ll get our money’s worth out of giving them to [the academy],” he said.

The department does plan to sell off eight additional used cruisers through an auction house, he said.