My request for information regarding the purchase and “upfit” of 14 new Dodge Durango Police SUVs landed in the Visalia City Clerk’s email Monday, 1/12/2026, and the response landed in my email Tuesday, 1/13/2026, shortly after 5pm. Talk about quick service!
If you’d like to follow me down this particular rabbit hole, click on ‘more’ below, and you’ll see the pages of information about the Durangos, and the “upfit” equipment to be installed in each.
If you don’t want to fall down that hole, then I’ll just say that it takes a lot of equipment to outfit a modern police vehicle, and while I think $33,000 each is making someone a lot of money, I doubt this is a case of “we can get it cheaper somewhere else”.
Thank you to the City Clerk for the rapid response to my request.
Images of the vehicle invoices next:
Ok, the above is the SUV itself. Now come the “goodies” to make it a police car:
Now, we need K9 units.
So there we go. Brand new Dodge Durango SUV AWD Police Pursuit vehicles, at just over $97,000 each. (With those $6,000 radios from Motorola) And a bit over $100K for the K9 units.
Here’s what the consent calendar information packet looked like for the request:
What do you think? Are cities getting their money’s worth for these vehicles?
Again, thank you to the City of Visalia for a quick, accurate response to my request.
Random thoughts, occasional rants, illuminating commentary, and an odd story now and then from the world of 9-1-1 dispatching. All this and more from a gay liberal atheist living in California’s Bible belt. I recently married, so MAGA beware! I’m your worst nightmare! Some names have been omitted to protect the innocent, but the guilty will be hung out to dry!
Follow Up – Public Records Request – City of Visalia – Dodge Durangos & “upfit”
January 14, 2026
Jim Reeves commentary, News, Personal budget, business, News, Public records act, visalia, Visalia City Council, visalia police department, VPD Leave a comment
My request for information regarding the purchase and “upfit” of 14 new Dodge Durango Police SUVs landed in the Visalia City Clerk’s email Monday, 1/12/2026, and the response landed in my email Tuesday, 1/13/2026, shortly after 5pm. Talk about quick service!
If you’d like to follow me down this particular rabbit hole, click on ‘more’ below, and you’ll see the pages of information about the Durangos, and the “upfit” equipment to be installed in each.
If you don’t want to fall down that hole, then I’ll just say that it takes a lot of equipment to outfit a modern police vehicle, and while I think $33,000 each is making someone a lot of money, I doubt this is a case of “we can get it cheaper somewhere else”.
Thank you to the City Clerk for the rapid response to my request.
Images of the vehicle invoices next:
Ok, the above is the SUV itself. Now come the “goodies” to make it a police car:
Now, we need K9 units.
So there we go. Brand new Dodge Durango SUV AWD Police Pursuit vehicles, at just over $97,000 each. (With those $6,000 radios from Motorola) And a bit over $100K for the K9 units.
Here’s what the consent calendar information packet looked like for the request:
What do you think? Are cities getting their money’s worth for these vehicles?
Again, thank you to the City of Visalia for a quick, accurate response to my request.
Still waiting to hear back from the Visalia Unified School District, though.
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