FROM STAFF REPORTS

Pelham residents soon will begin noticing new, more modern designs on the Pelham Police Department’s patrol division vehicles.

The department will begin putting the newly designed vehicles in service in April, marking the first major design change in nearly two decades.

“For about the last 20 years, the patrol fleet graphics package has remained largely the same, the new look will be a stark contrast from the current package,” read a police department press release.

“We feel that having a modern-looking patrol vehicle helps to foster the progressive mindset with the office and with the public,” Police Chief Tommy Thomas wrote in the release.

The department will begin adding the new look gradually over the next few years as police cars are rotated out of the fleet and replaced with new vehicles. The department’s fleet already includes several Dodge Charger police cars displaying the new graphics.

“It is not financially feasible to restripe older vehicles in the fleet. The change over to the new graphics package will happen incrementally over a period of three to four years,” Thomas wrote. “During that time, we will have a mixture between the existing graphics and the new graphics.”