Cash-Strapped County Inspires 'Clunkers for Cruisers'

Before this week, there were two types of vehicles that I would NEVER expect to be repossessed:

Trucks with full gun racks and police cars.

Basically, I believed they were repo-resistant for the same reason. The drivers of both vehicles are typically well-armed and not afraid to protect their property. I imagine those are the type of people that the typical repo-man does NOT want to deal with.

However, this belief -- or at least half of it -- was all shot to pieces earlier this week when five patrol cars for the Alexander County, Ill. Sheriff's Department were repossessed because the county defaulted on their payments.

Who knew you could repossess a police car? I certainly didn't.

However, the Alexander County Sheriff's Department did the right thing and turned their cruisers into the bank without an incident or involving a repo-man in their recovery.

It would have been an extremely awkward situation, if instead they had decided that protecting the citizenry of Alexander County was more important than repaying a measly little loan and had kept the cars in service to the public. Maybe that's how socialism starts.

Anyhow, I guess that just shows you the pecking order of bankers compared to law enforcement. Perhaps, the sheriff and his deputies will remember that the next time a bank robbery occurs in Alexander County.

"We'd like to come over there and chase down the thieves who held up the bank, but our Huffy police cruiser just threw a chain and it's going to be out of commission until we can afford to buy a new master link."

Really, this whole situation is quite sad for the citizens of Alexander County. Minutes after the story was released on the Southeast Missourian website, one reader quickly identified the cause of this problem as being the result of "Obama's economics."

The insinuation that Cairo and the rest of Alexander County were thriving under the Bush administration made me laugh. When exactly was the last time that the southern tip of Illinois could have been considered prosperous? Maybe 50 years ago when coal was still king in Southern Illinois?

I think that rather than point fingers and blame "The Other Guys" for this financial default in Alexander County, we should all pitch in and assist our neighbor to the east.

For instance, I noticed in the Southeast Missourian that on Saturday, September 26, the city of Cape Girardeau is holding it's annual surplus auction. Among the goodies being sold are five older Ford Crown Victorias.

Wanna bet that they are ex-police cruisers? It's like fate. Alexander County needs five cruisers and we have five surplus cruisers. Perhaps the city could donate them to our Illinois neighbors as some kind of a tax-write off.

Or what about the back lots of all the local car dealerships that still have rows of those Cash for Clunkers trade-ins waiting to be trashed?

I propose we start a new program called Clunkers For Cruisers in which we take the best of these reputed wrecks and convert them into needed local law enforcement vehicles. We can just tell the feds that they were destroyed. They'll never find out. After all, who would think of checking a VIN number on an "Official Ford F-150 Police Cruiser?"

Now, some might say that a Ford F-150 -- that model was one of the most popular traded in to the Cash for Clunkers program -- is not a practical vehicle for law enforcement, but I disagree. I think it would be a very handy vehicle for patrolling the rough gravel back roads of Alexander County.

In addition, the sheriff and his deputies could use a rugged Ford F-150 and its sizable payload to haul a lot more prisoners around than they ever could with a Crown Vic.

And best of all, a Ford F-150 is ready-made for a gun-rack.

That makes them practically repo-resistant and that's important.