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Elon Police Chief Denied Jaguar: Board Worried Keeping Car Might Damage Town's Image

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Mike Wilder, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Feb. 15--The Elon Police Department won't be keeping a Jaguar that was seized from a drug dealer. The town's board of aldermen voted Tuesday night to sell the car, a black 2001 S-Type, instead. Most board members said they had heard negative comments about the department keeping the car.

The car's Kelley Blue Book value is $23,000, according to Police Chief LaVell Lovette. She thinks it might be worth as much at $25,000 because of extra features and its impeccable condition. Elon police arrested a former Elon University student last year in connection with supplying drugs to students there. Then the department worked with the Greensboro and High Point police departments and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to arrest another dealer in the Greensboro-High Point area. The Jaguar was part of the property seized from him. Lovette had asked that the department be allowed to spend $5,083 to keep the car. Most of that would have been to reimburse the Drug Enforcement Administration for its share of what the car is worth. The department would have put a sign on the car explaining it had been seized from a drug dealer. She had proposed using the car as the chief 's car, with other officers using the car for special events. Board of aldermen members voted 3-2 against keeping the car. With Jo Grimley and Lawrence Slade voting to keep it and Ron Klepcyk and Davis Montgomery voting against that proposal, Mayor Jerry Tolley broke the tie by voting against keeping the car. Board member William Swing wasn't at the meeting. Lovette called people who sell and buy cars at public auctions, which is the only way the law will allow the town to sell the car. The estimates she got were that the Jaguar might bring $11,000 to $15,000. The town will have to give 20 percent of what it receives to the federal government. If the department had kept the Jaguar, the provision of the law that allowed for its seizure would have required it to keep the car for two years. After that, it could have taken its time to look for a buyer to pay closer to the car's value. If the department had kept the Jaguar, Lovette's current car would have gone to the police captain, and his 2005 Ford Crown Victoria would have gone into the patrol fleet. It would have replaced a 1994 Ford Crown Victoria. All those factors combined, board members appeared to agree, would justify paying the $5,083 to keep the Jaguar. But most board members felt issues of perception and image were more important. Klepcyk said eight out of 10 people who talked to him about the Jaguar since Lovette made her request last week thought keeping the car would be "inappropriate." Montgomery said that could have led to an image problem that would stick with the town even after the car was gone. Tolley said he called mayors of other Alamance County municipalities who said the town should sell the car. "If that would have been a Chevrolet, there wouldn't have been any (objection)," Tolley said. Board members who voted against keeping the car said it doesn't mean they aren't proud of the department's role in the drug case. The money the town gets for the car will go to the police department to be used for drug enforcement efforts. Mike Wilder can be reached at mike_wilder@link.freedom.com or 506-3046

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Copyright (c) 2006, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

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Source: Times-News

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