The West Palm Beach Police Department has had to pull 13 of its Ford police vehicles off the road since last week due to reported engine failure, according to WPTV.
City officials are concerned the issue may be with Ford’s engines after investigating the possibility of sabotage. Here’s more from WPTV:
“It’s a mystery,” City Administrator Jeff Green said. “We’re still working through it. Very strange. Very concerning.”
Green said they looked at sabotage as a possibility.
“We have GPS records that we kind of track on all these cars,” Green said. “They’ve not been in the same place. It would be very difficult. A lot of these are take home cars, they go to different officer’s homes at night. So unless someone went to all of the homes of these officers it would be practically impossible.”
Green said at this point, more signs are pointing at a problem with the engines.
The police department reviewed its entire fleet for issues after two vehicles suddenly stopped working last week, leading to 11 more being pulled from service.
The vehicles are reportedly relatively new with only around 25,000 miles, and while they are not all the same model, they all share the same Ford engines. Ford is reportedly working with the city on determining the cause of the issue, and the 13 vehicles are set to have their engines replaced at no cost to taxpayers.
The West Palm Beach Police Department’s issues are not the only troubles police departments have experienced with Ford’s police vehicles. Back in July, multiple police departments reported issues with their Ford Explorer Police Interceptors leaking carbon monoxide into the vehicle cabins.
Jalopnik reached out to the West Palm Beach Police Department and Ford on the cause of the engine failures and to determine which vehicles are involved and will update when more information is available.