Sheriff’s office swapping Fords for Chevy Tahoes

 CLAY COUNTY – Chevrolet Tahoes will soon the be the Heartbeat of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office's patrol fleet.

Sheriff Michelle Cook said the agency will soon start transitioning its fleet of older Ford Explorer patrol cars to the Tahoe. While the new Chevrolets will cost about $5,000 more than a Ford, the long-term savings will eventually make the purchase a bargain.

The Chevys will be purchased as the Fords come to the end of their usefulness.

“I know it's a bigger, sort of fancier vehicle, but there's business reasons why we are doing this, and it's going to save your taxpayer dollars,” she said in a YouTube post. “On the initial cost, the Tahoe is about $5,000 more per vehicle. However, with that being said, we expect to get 30,000 to 50,000 more miles per vehicle, which means that the average police vehicle that's out there between six and eight years. We're thinking we're going to be able to get seven to nine, maybe 10 years out of the vehicles.

“The other thing that is important about the Tahoe is that the resale value is a lot higher. In fact, it's more than double the Ford, which we currently use as our police package vehicle.”

Another factor, Cook said, the sheriff’s office’s fleet department will become a GM certified warranty center, which means any repair covered by warranty can be done at the sheriff’s office, then reimbursed by GM.

“What that entails is getting training from General Motors for our technicians, so they're capable of completing those warranty repairs, and in return, General Motors will pay us for those repairs,” said Fleet Manager Jason Jeralds. “They'll return [it] back to our agency.”

Jeralds also said CCSO will convert the Tahoes into patrol vehicles by adding the cages, lights, sirens and agency logos instead of sending out to a third party.

The current logos were created by an outside company. The sheriff’s office is working with a local company to produce a new logo since they will be prohibited from using the current markup.

“By partnering with this local company and the quicker turnaround with the logos on the side of the new vehicles, we're going to be saving over $200 per vehicle,” Cook said. “So again, another cost savings between doing our own warranty work, doing our own lighting and installation of cages and lights and sirens, we're saving about $4,000 per car, and then we're going to save a couple hundred bucks (3:39) per car by updating the logo.”

The sheriff’s office has a few logo prototypes and hasn’t picked one yet.

“At the end of the day, there's a couple things that are really important to me as your sheriff,” Cook said. “Number one, we've got to keep our deputies in the best equipment, the safest equipment, so they can effectively do their job.

“Number two, we've got to save your taxpayer dollars. This is your money, these are your tax dollars, and every single day we're looking at ways to be more efficient and more effective with your taxpayer dollars.”

Deputies kill retired CCSO K-9 while fighting with a suspect

 MIDDLEBURG – The Clay County Sheriff’s Office shot and killed a retired K-9 deputy while attempting to subdue a man during a disturbance call on Sunday, June 28.

K-9 Odin was killed after he bit a deputy who was wrestling with Kyle Whane Graham, 36, of Middleburg, who was being detained for a reported assault.

According to the arrest report, deputies responded to a home on Sugarpine Drive and found a victim with apparent wounds. When they attempted to detain Graham, he resisted and attempted to “overpower” two deputies. K-9 Odin left the home and bit one of the deputies, prompting both deputies to use a leg sweep to take Graham to the ground, and the second deputy to shoot Odin. The second then used his stun gun to finally gain control of Graham.

He was charged with resisting law enforcement with violence, domestic violence, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery on law enforcement.

His bond was set at $180,014.

Honduran charged with DUI challenged CCSO to ‘deport’ him

 ORANGE PARK – A Jacksonville man was arrested for driving under the influence on June 5, and he was charged with refusal to submit to DUI testing and driving without a valid license on Friday, June 26, after telling Clay County Sheriff’s Office deputies, “Can we just get to the point of deporting me? I don’t want to do anything.”

Denis Gustavo Maldonado Acosta, 33, apparently rear-ended another car at Blanding and Blairmore boulevards. When deputies arrived, they noticed a beer in Maldonado Acosta’s center console.

According to the arrest report, when questioned, he admitted he had been drinking at a friend’s house. After the crash report was completed with the help of a Spanish-speaking officer who translated, CCSO attempted to conduct a DUI investigation and Maldonado Acosta refused, saying, “If you are going to arrest me, just do it.”

Maldonado Acosta also refused to take a breath analyzer test at the Clay County Jail.

His bond was set at $30,013.