Clarksville Police Department rolls out newly redesigned patrol cars

CLARKSVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- The Clarksville Police Department has a fleet of new patrol cars that hit the streets this week after being designed and voted on by officers.

The cars — 40 in all — are the first new set in roughly 12 years. The town's budget allowed for seven or eights to be redesigned this year. On Thursday, one patrol car hit the road for the first time.

The new cars are essentially the officers' offices, so they are more spacious and have brighter LEDs.

Part of the goal with the redesign is to appear friendlier to the community.

"We have heard some terms like menacing and intimidating with our old vehicles," Chief Nathan Walls said Thursday. "... not that that was ever our intention."

Since Walls became chief in January, he's introduced new initiatives to the department, including a peer support team to combat the trauma of police work. He's already expanded his officers' tool kit with sensory toys for children and works with a recovery organization to end the cycle of addiction in the community.

Within three days of a drug overdose, a Project CARE employee accompanies an officer to the survivor's door. They leave behind kits containing Narcan, band-aids, and Clark county resource guides.

"The mental health stuff is important to me because my wife was a psych nurse," Walls said. "Hopefully we don't need them, but like all of our tools, if we need them, they're there."

Walls said these new patrol cars aren't where the changes end.

"We are in the middle of somewhat of a remodel — a little bit of a rebrand — inside the building," he said. "We wake up every day and come to work and hope to have a new idea that can make this place better."

A handful of officers are driving the new cars already. The department hopes to replace the rest of the old cars next year, meaning you will still see some of this old design on the road.

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