City council members at their Oct. 18 meeting unanimously approved $1.95 million for the purchase of 78 new Ford Crown Victorias for the police department. The cars will be phased into the city's fleet one by one on a weekly basis as old cars are retired each week.

Each $25,000 patrol car is outfitted with standard police equipment, including a radio, computer, lights and a tool to break open windows and slice open seatbelts.

"This is a routine purchase," fleet manager Sgt. Bret Muncy said.

The cars will come from a Ford dealership in Folsom.

At the meeting, District 2 Councilman Forrest Williams said that since no local dealerships participated in the bidding process, these dealerships should be encouraged to participate in future purchases.

"We have dealers that have the same product as dealers in Folsom," Williams said.

The city owns 338 patrol cars, which are good for five years and 100,000 miles. The set of 78 cars this year means the city will not purchase additional cars until December 2006.

After the meeting, Muncy said the new cars are rolled into the fleet seamlessly so the officers typically wouldn't even notice.

The cars are kept in a central police lot on W. Mission Street. The decision to deploy the cars is based on maximizing each car's life so it will last 100,000 miles over the five years.

"They are expensive taxpayer assets, and we treat them as such," Muncy said.