Torrance Police Utility Task Vehicle (UTV)

The City of Torrance, Police Department is requesting $20,938 in 2024 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funding to acquire a Torrance Police Utility Task Vehicle (UTV).  Given a policing jurisdiction that includes a regional transit center, Torrance beach, a marsh reserve, thirty-plus public parks and a multitude of recessed land pockets along railroad tracks and interstate ingress/egresses, Torrance Police response efficiency is often inhibited by the size dimensions of a standard vehicle.   UTV deployment has therefore emerged as a critical tool to efficiently policing mass transit hubs where layouts include confined spaces buttressing mass transit roadways and providing outreach to the city's homeless population which often inhabit hard to reach enclaves in undeveloped or enclosed landscapes. Moreover, Torrance is home to the sixth largest shopping mall in the U.S. that has been the ongoing target of organized retail theft, as well as the sight of mass youth gatherings which have turned disruptive and sometimes violent.

Successful deployment of a grant funded UTV enables Torrance Police to: 1) expand its vehicle response footprint to wider swaths of its jurisdiction where public safety trends have increasingly propagated; 2) increase policing visibility and approachability in otherwise pedestrian dominant environments like recreational centers, outdoor retail spaces, school campuses and beaches; and 3) improve Torrance Police resource deployment speed and flexibility to better protect the public, render medical aid or transport resources within spatial circumstances that would otherwise incur delay when reliant only on full sized vehicles.