Calling All Cars

There are a number of good reasons to let Richmond police officers drive their squad cars home. The policy heightens the visibility of the department, for one thing. For another, it makes life easier for officers who might have to get up in the middle of the night and rush to a crime scene. Third, it might help ease the financial strain on the men and women in blue, who get by on exceedingly modest pay.

On the other hand, you can take a good thing too far. Richmond's cop-car policy has.

Records indicate that as many as two-thirds of the vehicles designated for drive-home use leave the city limits. Some go as far as Fredericksburg or Williamsburg. That puts a lot of road miles on the vehicles, with no discernible benefit except to a few individual officers.

Mayor Dwight Jones, Police Chief Bryan Norwood, and members of the City Council agree that the policy needs tightening. Good. The Henrico and Chesterfield police departments confine take-home cars to a tighter radius -- the county itself or the contiguous jurisdictions. Richmond should do the same.