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Elon Swaps Jag for Dog: Police Sold Luxury Car for $17,500

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 12:00 CST

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

Mar. 23--Elon has swapped a cat for a dog, so to speak. Elon Police Chief LaVell Lovette had hoped to keep a Jaguar sedan seized from a drug dealer. The town's board of aldermen, concerned about potential image problems, decided the police should sell the car instead. So the department will use the money to buy its first police dog. Lovette said the car, a black 2001 S-Type, sold for $17,500 at an auction in High Point. After paying auction costs and giving the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) its share of proceeds, Lovette expects to have about $14,000. That's a little more than she expects the department will need to spend for the dog. She said most of the costs will be one-time expenses. Those include buying the dog, adapting a car so the dog can safely ride in it, training for the officer who will work with the dog, and a kennel. Officer James Perry will work with the dog. The animal won't be used for capturearrest purposes. "We'll use (the dog) for tracking, and article searching, and drug-sniffing," Lovette said. For those uses, Lovette said, the department could get a Labrador retriever, German shepherd or another breed. Lovette wants a "personable dog" children would be able to approach if it is taken to events. THE DEPARTMENT HAS borrowed dogs from the Alamance County Sheriff 's Department and Graham Police Department to investigate a residential break-in and to search for an Alzheimer's patient.

The police department received the Jaguar after an investigation that led to the arrest of a former Elon University student who was supplying drugs to students. Elon police helped with a further investigation that led to a major dealer who owned the Jaguar. LOVETTE HAD ASKED TO KEEP the car as the chief 's car and for officers to use at events to publicize what can happen to the property of people who sell drugs. The department would have had to pay $5,000 to the DEA to keep the car instead of selling it. The plan would have put an existing car into the police department's patrol fleet, which board members thought might justify the plan economically. But despite Lovette's proposal to put a sign on the car saying how the department got it, the board feared residents might think the board had been extravagant. Lovette said the department got more money for the car than she'd expected, though not as much as the Kelley Blue Book value of $23,000 or more, based on low mileage and extra features. 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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