The Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD) has developed professional relationships with several international law enforcement agencies and entertained, with some of them, discussions about delivering training for their officers. In 2018 while doing so, James Smith, then Commissioner for the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (TCPF), expressed a critical need for police vehicles through which to better carry out their law enforcement duties. In response to this identified need, the City of Miami Beach drafted a standing Letter of Understanding with TCPF (included below) and identified a prisoner transport vehicle at end-of-life that could be provided to their police force.
In addition to the contribution of the 2011 Ford Police Prisoner Transport Van in 2018, the Department would now like to donate the following five vehicles to TCPF at no cost to the City of Miami Beach:
- Vehicle 3388 – 2011 Ford Explorer
- Vehicle 3389 – 2011 Ford Explorer
- Vehicle 3390 – 2011 Ford Explorer
- Vehicle 3394 – 2011 Ford Explorer
- Vehicle 13030 – 2014 Ford Interceptor
City vehicles are scheduled for review and/or replacement based on a pre-determined schedule and using various industry standard metrics to include age, mileage, maintenance, engine hour and overall condition. Once vehicles have reached the pre-determined criteria, they are considered to have reached their “end-of-life” following a physical inspection and determination of safety and maintenance cost effectiveness.
The inspection of the aforementioned vehicles earlier this year determined that they had reached their end-of-life with the Department.
Under normal circumstances, vehicles reaching their end-of-life are sold at regularly held public auctions as doing so positively impacts the City’s overall cost of asset ownership. Proceeds from auction sales are used to reduce the cost of purchasing replacement vehicles. MBPD and fleet staff estimated the fair market value of the vehicles to determine whether any substantial cost associated with donating versus selling would be incurred. Upon review, Fleet Management estimated the auction value of the vehicles to be $4,500 each. The appraisal does not account for costs associated with preparing an end-of-life MBPD vehicle for auction, which would include costs to remove MBPD graphics, fuel management, and AVL system systems or the costs of administering the auction itself. The actual sale price of the vehicle is unknown and would be subject to the mechanical condition of the vehicle and market environment at the time of the final auction sale.
The MBPD has approved the replacement of the five vehicles as part of the Fleet Management’s annual fleet acquisition list, and the vehicles have officially been declared as surplus and of no further use to the City. The donation, however, would make a significant and positive impact to an agency which does not easily have access to vehicles with similar capacities.
It should be highlighted that the TCPF has committed to absorb any costs associated with the transport of said vehicles to Turks and Caicos.