The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office will be getting 13 new 2025 Ford Explorers by the end of the year, and each will be outfitted with everything officers need to patrol the county.
The Board of Carroll County Commissioners at their meeting Thursday unanimously approved hiring Priority Install LLC in Mount Airy to install equipment in each of the 13 SUVs at a total cost of $330,816.
“The vehicles are expected to arrive in November and December,” said Reid Oliver, bureau chief of the county’s fleet management and warehouse. “At that point they will be sent to Priority.”
The company will install graphics, lights, sirens, storage compartments, communication equipment and prisoner partitions separating the officer in the front from the detainee in the back, in each vehicle.
In August, commissioners approved the purchase of the 13 replacement Ford Explorers for the sheriff’s office patrol fleet. The new vehicles were purchased from Hertrich Fleet Services Inc. at a cost of $653,368. The current vehicles will be sold at auction.
The Ford Explorers will be integrated into the patrol and correctional fleet used by the sheriff’s office.
Before this fleet upgrade, commissioners in September 2022, unanimously approved the purchase of 13 new patrol vehicles, at a total cost of $580,453. This included two 2023 Ford F-150 Police Responder pickup trucks for $47,993, as well as six hybrid 2023 Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicles, for $271,212, and five non-hybrid 2023 Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicles for $213,255.