KEY POINTS:
Police are considering replacing their all-white fleet of cars with a new variety of coloured ones - so they can be sold off for a better price at the end of their lives.
However, the force's bosses face a hard battle convincing beat police it's a good idea.
Police national procurement manager Stan Pope told Radio New Zealand one car has already been done out in pale blue, while two are sand-coloured.
Inspector Rob Morgan, in charge of operational policy and standards for road policing, said it was believed each car could be worth about $500 more than a white one when it came to be sold at the end of its lifespan.
A light blue and a sandstone-coloured car had already been decked out in police livery to test support within police and its finance company, Mr Morgan said.
However, he said: "I don't believe it's got a whole lot of support.
"Certainly from my group we don't support it at the moment because we don't think it adds anything to the operational side of things and we're not sure about its visibility."
He said the idea had been "floating around" for years, and was already done in in Tasmania and to a lesser extent in Queensland.
He had concerns that having multiple colours of police cars could lessen their distinctiveness to the public.
Mr Morgan said it was also a possibility that as police were such large buyers of the Commodores, that adding more of coloured ones would simply lower their value in the marketplace.
Police have about 4000 cars across the country and buy about 400 new Holden Commodores a year.
"It may be because we've got a whole lot of white cars out there, that's why they're getting a little bit less and if we stop selling the number of white cars we do the cost of white cars might go up and the cost of coloured cars might go down," he said. "We don't know."
The average lifespan of a police car is about three to five years.
The Police Association said thorough research was needed before a decision was taken.
Police will decide within two weeks, Radio NZ reported.
- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF
