The Grovetown Police Department has added a vehicle to its fleet. A new utility terrain vehicle will be used in off-road patrols.
“We got about three miles of walking trail with the trail network we have, and there are talks of expanding the trail system in the city,” said Grovetown Chief of Police Jamey Kitchens. “Obviously, we can’t drive a patrol car down it, so that was one reason.”
Kitchens also explained that the UTV will be good for off-road driving and patrolling in situations if they need to get to a certain area.
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“About four or five months ago, we had some bad weather that knocked down some trees and made several roads impassable, and we can’t drive off the side of the road in our patrol cars without getting them hung up,” Kitchens said. “We had people that were having to go two and three miles around to get to the cause, so something like this will allow us navigate around that and respond.”
Kitchens said the UTV was funded by excess budget from last fiscal year and was something he requested with the extra money.
While this is one upgrade for the Grovetown Police Department, Kitchens says he hopes to have a new building in the future because of the growth the department has seen.
“My five-year plan would be that we would like to have a new brick and mortar police department somewhere because we have outgrown this one,” Kitchens said. “We’re also are going to look at some training aids. There is always room for improvement, but we have a pretty good complement of stuff here.”
Chris Rickerson is a staff reporter covering Columbia County government and general assignment topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at chris@theaugustapress.com.
