Deputies Put Brakes on Patrol Car Complaints : Law enforcement: Callers object to the new Toyota Camry, although it was a gift and made in the United States.
When sheriff’s deputies in the Antelope Valley rolled out their newest black-and-white at an open house over the weekend, some people admired the sleek lines of the 1991 Toyota Camry four-door. But others wanted to know what the heck Mojave Desert peace officers were doing with a Japanese car.
It is an area known for its patriotism and conservative outlook, and by Monday, the calls started coming, complaining that a Japanese patrol car was . . . well, un-American. Some people called Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s office in Lancaster; others called the sheriff’s station.
By midday, the station put out a press release saying it hadn’t bought the “foreign-made” car, it just got it as a donation from Toyota. “Some people were upset to think we were buying Japanese cars,” Sgt. Bob Denham said.
“It’s a funny thing about police cars. People are real picky about them.”
Yet in the automotive business, as in law enforcement, it turns out that things aren’t always what they seem. The offending Camry, although produced by a Japanese company, was in fact built at a Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky., that employs several thousand Americans.
And the Camry, which deputies are testing for the company, will stay on the job for a year.
“We expected this kind of reaction from the community and so did Toyota,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Borges, who helps oversee the department’s fleet of about 900 black-and-whites. Borges said Toyota officials figured that it would enable them to show that Toyotas can also be American.
In fact, about one-third of all the Toyotas sold in the United States last year were built at the company’s three North American plants, the one in Kentucky and others in Fremont, Calif., and Ontario, Canada, said Mike Michels, spokesman for Toyota’s Torrance-based U. S. affiliate.
Borges said Toyota, which is considering trying to market the Camry to law enforcement agencies, lent two to the Sheriff’s Department for a one-year trial. One went to Catalina Island, the other to the Antelope Valley “because they put a zillion miles on their cars up there,” he said.
Borges said Toyota officials want the department’s feedback with an eye toward possibly producing a larger future model for law enforcement agencies. Because the existing model is too small, it cannot be equipped with the security screens and computer terminals used in most sheriff’s patrol cars, typically the Chevrolet Caprice.
Thus, deputies in the Antelope Valley, who are happy to have a free car, whatever the company’s motives, will only be using it for special purposes. Chevrolets and Fords dominate the police market because they build special police models. And Borges said his department has never before tested a foreign model black-and-white.
