Provo doesn't require its police officers to live in the city, but it wants those who do to drive a patrol car home.
"There's a lot of benefits to having officers park a patrol car in front of their homes. It puts a police presence in a lot of neighborhoods," Provo Police Chief Swen Nielsen said.The City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night to spend about $350,000 to purchase 15 new patrol cars so every patrol officer living in Provo can take a car home. Of the city's 54 patrol officers, 26 live in Provo and 28 live outside Provo.
The 15 new cars and two existing cars will provide a pool for those patrol officers living outside the city. The 26 cars remaining in the fleet will be assigned to patrol officers living in the city to take home. The officers will not be allowed to use the cars for personal use.
"We won't require them to take a car home if they don't want to, but we hope they will," Nielsen said.
Mayor George Stewart said the city is not considering adopting a policy similar to the one Salt Lake City adopted this week that would require all new officers to reside in the city. However, the city is discussing other incentives to entice officers to move to Provo.
"We'd love to have all of our officers living in the city," Stewart said.