Law Enforcement Leads the Way in Public Safety Electrification
As we approach the end of 2023, a clear trend has emerged. Electric vehicles (EVs) are being added to law enforcement fleets across North America at a brisk pace. You will find them in Logan, Ohio; Westport, Connecticut; Fremont, California; Cobb County, Georgia; Bargersville, Indiana; and many other municipalities. This rate of adoption matches the exponential adoption curve of other technologies like mobile phones and 911, and dwarfs other public safety providers like emergency medical services and fire departments.
This article appeared in the November/December issue of OFFICER Magazine. Click Here to subscribe to OFFICER Magazine.
Some of you may be asking why this is happening. Those who know understand that EVs are great for law enforcement in many cases and for many reasons. First, and foremost, they are excellent for officer safety.
The inherent design of a native EV, one designed as an EV from the ground-up, places the battery pack low and in the middle of the car. This lowers the center of gravity by putting the heaviest part of the vehicle at the frame level. It also creates a well-balanced vehicle because the weight is distributed evenly, and the balance does not change as energy is used unlike an internal combustion engine (ICE) car which loses weight in the rear as the fuel tank empties. Anyone who has driven a pickup truck in slippery conditions understands the effects of unequal weight distribution on the rear end when it loses traction.
Native EV architecture also creates space for larger crumple zones allowing the vehicle to take the brunt of a crash while keeping the passenger compartment intact. Lastly, despite what you see and hear on the news, EVs are not prone to catching fire. They actually catch fire at a much lower rate than ICE vehicles. You just do not hear about all of ICE fires every day, because we see them all the time.
Another benefit of EVs over ICE vehicles is cost. This may seem to be contradictory, because EV’s have typically been more expensive up front than ICE alternatives, but that is changing. Here is a comparison between two vehicles commonly used by law enforcement agencies:
The EV is cheaper across the board, including maintenance, even though we did not include that category. This is only one example; there are more EV options available to compare. I suggest using one of the many tools available online to compare and contrast ICE to EV options based on your agency’s use case.
Another way EVs are better than ICE as a law enforcement vehicle, especially for patrol in a municipality, is efficiency. EVs do not idle, and they use very little energy while driving in stop and go traffic, or at lower speeds on patrol. They may be operated continually throughout a shift without draining much energy from the battery. ICE vehicles, however, waste 80% of their energy to heat and exhaust, especially when they idle. That is one of the reasons many agencies have enacted anti-idling policies and added idling technologies to their ICE fleets. When you do need to move quickly EVs outperform as well, because their torque curve gives you 100% power from a standstill; ICE cars must “rev up” to give you their full power.
One big concern has been the expected degradation and eventual replacement of EV battery packs. There has been a spate of news about this; however, those horror stories did not come true. A recent study by a company that deals in used EV’s showed battery degradation is not a problem. Some early EVs (more than 10 years ago) allowed the user to abuse the pack by charging it to 100% and discharging it completely. Auto manufacturers recognized this issue, and now they hide portions of the battery pack at the bottom and the top of the charging range to keep users from degrading the packs. Combined with quality energy management systems, EV battery packs are performing well even after a hundred thousand miles. This may result in EV’s lasting longer in your fleet than your current vehicles, further reducing your overall cost as you replace them less often.
EVs are not perfect, though. They use a lot of energy when driving at high speed over long distances. Battery technology is improving rapidly with safer, cheaper, and higher capacities coming into production every year. Meanwhile, agencies with long distance responses may need to wait a few years for longer-range EVs, or develop a charging infrastructure to cover those large areas. This brings us to the other side of electrification, the other half of the chicken-egg problem of EVs: charging.
Mission-critical fleets using EVs must have mission-critical EV charging. These chargers must be robust, resilient, and able to operate at any time day or night, even when the power is out. The best way to do that is by developing your own energy systems based on your agency’s stations and facilities. Most early adopting agencies assign their EVs to individual officers who take them home, and have the time to charge them in-between shifts. This works fine until the electric grid stops working, the officer forgets to charge their car, or they have a bad shift where they drain their battery before it ends.
Law enforcement agencies with EVs in their fleets need to develop mission-critical charging based on microgrid technology. Agencies should add energy storage (usually a bigger battery pack) to their facilities, install energy generation (preferably renewable energy), install high-power chargers with that microgrid, and run it all through a sophisticated energy management system. This is a mission-critical microgrid (patent pending), a miniature version of the electric grid able to operate by itself when the grid is down, and for a specified period to meet your agency’s resiliency goals.
A mission-critical microgrid will supply enough power to fill up a law enforcement EV in 15 minutes or less, and incorporate technologies like inductive charging to make it simple, and easy for officers to fill up their EVs at the station just by parking in designated spots. In addition to fulfilling the need for robust, resilient EV charging, these microgrids also offset energy costs for the facilities on which they are installed. This helps to save your agency money on electricity in addition to the extra fuel savings by using the energy the microgrid creates to fill up your EVs. Your agency’s infrastructure also becomes more resilient, because it is protected against power outages without relying solely on fuel-limited generators. When these microgrids are connected and usable by the electric grid operator, they provide neighborhood and community-level resiliency. Finally, if your community has climate goals your fleet electrification and microgrid development helps to accomplish those goals more quickly while also supporting your mission-critical fleet.
Law enforcement EVs are already here, especially for early adopters able to charge them up while off shift. Now we need to make EVs work for all law enforcement agencies, so we must build out a charging infrastructure as soon as possible. We are doing a lot to develop EV charging for the public, but we need to do more with law enforcement’s mission-critical responsibility in mind to make sure this EV transition works for you and the people you serve and protect.
About the Author
Retired Fire Chief Michael Benson is a consultant leveraging a 30-year career in public service. His primary focus is electrification for public safety: switching from fossil fuelpowered tools, equipment, and vehicles to electric, and developing needed infrastructure.
Michael Benson
Retired Fire Chief Michael Benson is a consultant leveraging an award-winning 30-year career in public service including innovations which simultaneously improved service and lowered costs. His primary focus is electrification: switching away from fossil fuel-powered tools, equipment, and vehicles to electric, and developing the infrastructure (microgrids) necessary to support that transition. Electrification saves money, makes organizations more efficient, and improves resiliency. His analyses have identified more than $50 million in value for clients, primarily municipalities, through electrification.
Chief Benson served as a volunteer and career firefighter, paramedic, and fire officer with his last eleven years as the Fire Chief for Copley Township in Summit County, Ohio. He oversaw a 65-person combination department and successfully led them through organizational and cultural change. He has extensive grant writing experience, passed multiple tax levies, and successfully created and managed community shared service initiatives, saving taxpayers millions of dollars while also improving service.
Michael Benson has a Professional Certificate in Energy innovation and Emerging Technologies from Stanford University; a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Anna Maria College; and Bachelor's and Associate’s Degrees in Fire and Safety Engineering Technology, and Fire Science from the University of Cincinnati. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program, and has been an instructor for the University of Akron for 20 years with a current focus on chief officer training and mentoring.
He is the Vice President of the Board for Green Energy Ohio, Vice President of Drive Electric Northeast Ohio, a member of the Critical Services Microgrid Group in Asheville, NC, and is a 19-year volunteer for Northern Ohio Golf Charities. Chief Benson has also authored several articles on public safety electrification. Michael and his wife own two electric vehicles, and he has been driving electric-only since 2018.
