Gas prices have been changing wildly this year, but police departments say that regardless of whether the price goes up or down, their patrols are mostly unaffected by them.

CMU Police, the Mount Pleasant Police Department and the local State Police Post 33 all said that patrol cars are too vital to safety to let prices affect much business.

CMU Police Chief Stan Dinius said gas for the CMU patrol cars is paid for out of a set budget, and gas for the cars is purchased without tax.

“We still try to do as many patrols as we can,” Dinius said.

Dinius said CMU Police keeps two patrol cars on call, and if there are more officers on shift, they may be put on foot or bike patrols.

“We have to try to reduce our gas cost every year,” Dinius said.

The foot and bike patrols are meant to help keep patrol coverage up while reducing car mileage, though Dinius said that these alternative patrols would have to be reduced as the weather gets worse.

Dinius said gas prices do not affect how CMU Police chooses its patrol routes.

“We try to vary them all the time anyway,” he said. “We don’t want someone figuring out where we’ll be.”

MPPD Capt. Glenn Feldhauser said MPPD is trying to use more fuel-efficient vehicles to reduce the department’s fleet cost.

“Our fleet is the major expense, but it’s important,” Feldhauser said.

Feldhauser said the department purchased a Dodge Charger to see if it would get better gas mileage, but estimated it gets only a difference of two miles to the gallon compared with the departments’ other vehicles.

MPPD is also looking into using motorcycles to reduce fleet cost without sacrificing patrol coverage, and is presenting the idea to the City Commission.

Feldhauser said police have also stopped idling their cars as much, which keeps the electronic equipment inside charged.

Feldhauser said the department has its own gas supply, paid for this year with an $18,000 budget.

Sgt. Del Putnam said the State Police usually does not have to worry about gas prices.

“All of our purchasing of gas comes out of a state debit card,” Putnam said. “So the cost comes out of the state coffers.”

The State Police posts project a budget based on average mileage per year, which usually stays about the same, Putnam said.

“Our amount of coverage is down because we simply don’t have the bodies,” Putnam said.

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E-mail the author: Jonathan Kleyer