Hire Cars Cost Devon Police Millions

Over 5 years, Devon and Cornwall Police have spent over £2 million hiring out cars and vehicles.

Across the two counties, our police have the biggest geographical area in England to cover.

They travel about 21 million miles a year, and so there are a number of reasons why our police may need to hire additional vehicles.

Sometimes vehicles are brought in either to beef up their existing fleet or to provide a wider variety of vehicles for use in undercover or sensitive operations.

To cope with peak demand, at any one time our police could have up to about 80 additional vehicles.

To listen to our interview with Head of Transport for Devon and Cornwall Police Martin Davis click here.

According to our police, their current situation is a prime example of why they have to hire in cars.

At the moment the force has hired about 20 4x4s to cope with the snow and inclement weather conditions. This means they have the correct vehicles to help them get to emergencies and deal with difficulties presented by bad weather.

They also say by hiring in vehicles as and when they need them it actually saves money as the force don't have to buy the cars and have them sitting around waiting to be used.

It means they avoid maintenance costs, time and also space to store the vehicles.