Crime & Safety

Newtown Police K-9 Unit To Purchase New Car

Newtown Township Board of Supervisors authorized the Newtown Township Police Department to replace the old K-9 vehicle.

NEWTOWN SQUARE–Good news comes to the 's K-9 unit. The K-9 unit received approval by the Board of Supervisors during Monday night's supervisors meeting to purchase a new K-9 vehicle.

"There's an opportunity to purchase a 2011 Crown Victoria vehicle...they are quickly running out. There are only two left," announced Supervisors Chairman Joseph Catania on Monday night.

According to Lt. Michael Savitski, the new police vehicle will replace the 7-year-old existing K-9 vehicle which has racked up approximately 100,000 miles. The new vehicle will be a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria, the last of its kind in the Ford fleet. Since the end of 2011, the Ford Crown Victoria has been discontinued.

Find out what's happening in Marple Newtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I think it's important to point out that the reason why the car is being replaced is that the existing one is near the end of its life. It has 100,000 miles on it and in need of a couple of thousand dollars worth of repairs. We’ve spent money on it recently and it’s at the end of the road," explained Supervisors Vice Chairman Dr. Ross Lambert.

Purchasing a brand new 2012 K-9 vehicle would mean more incurred costs. To upgrade the computer system alone in a brand new vehicle would cost approximately $3,000, according to Savitski.

Find out what's happening in Marple Newtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"If you went with a 2012 police car of the newer design, you would have to completely re-buy all over again–all the vehicle equipment you would need to have a dog in the car, which would be a lot of money. So, this actually saves the township," said Lambert.

According to Sgt. Gary Sebra, the cost of vehicle will be entirely funded by donations from the K-9 unit's fund. Currently, the fund exceeds more than $32,000 of donations with more coming. And the cost of the vehicle, according to Sebra, will be less than $32,000.

In addition, the costs of painting, lettering, and up-fitting the vehicle will also be covered through the K-9 unit's donation fund.

The motion to purchase a new K-9 vehicle was unanimously approved by the board. At their last meeting on Feb. 13, the supervisors also approved the authorization of the township manager to purchase two new police vehicles that were already earmarked in the 2012 budget.

Newtown police recently . Jeffrey Johnson is Newtown police's K-9 officer and the primary caretaker of Falco.

If anyone would like to donate towards Falco's fund, contact the police department at 610-356-0200.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.