Johnson County deputy Mike Hesinger stops a vehicle on State Road 37 near County Line Road in a new white Dodge Charger in June 2011.
Daily Journal Archive Photo
News from around Johnson County as reported on June 15 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 111 years.
On this day in 2011, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about the sheriff’s office changing the color of their vehicles.
“The Johnson County Sheriff was more concerned about the price tag than the color scheme of the new department cars,” the story began.
Then-Sheriff Doug Cox had opted for a color that doesn’t require a special order instead of the traditional two-tone brown cruisers. The white sheriff’s office vehicles cost $1,50 less and can be ordered more quickly than the brown cars.
The new look was the latest in updates to make police cars less expensive, more powerful and more high-tech. Today’s police vehicles have better gas mileage, a more powerful engine and more technology.
Officers keep track of the latest calls to their departments and use wireless internet, and the bright strobe lights are more visible than the old bulb lights the cards used to have. In most patrol cars, a digital video records traffic stops.
The sheriff’s office spends about $10,000 outfitting a car with a camera, laptop computer, radar, lights on the roof and in the grill, and the Johnson County emblem, Cox said.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2013
A Greenwood man was facing criminal charges for his role in hacking Purdue University professors’ accounts and changing his grades.
1993
The city of Franklin added lilac to its sewer treatment to help with the odors from the sewer plant.
1963
Franklin police were planning a crackdown on gambling within the city.
