City Council members indicated Tuesday they are anxious to reopen the issue of police take home cars during upcoming budget hearings.
Councilwoman Sally Robinson said she felt that the policy "is putting officers and citizens at risk."
City officials, saying it would save several hundred thousand dollars, put in the policy a year ago despite a howl of protest from officers.
It requires police officers who live outside the city limits to pay 30 cents per mile from their home to police headquarters on Amnicola Highway for use of a city police vehicle.
Chief Bobby Dodd said he lives 21 miles from police headquarters and the policy costs him almost $300 per month.
Toby Hewitt, president of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said 58 percent of officers live outside the city. He said only 12 percent of those have opted to lease the vehicles. He said he and others choose to drive their personal vehicles. He said the policy would have cost him $230 a month.
Chief Dodd said with the low number of officers participating, the revenue to the city has been $112,000 for the year.
Sgt. Hewitt said he and other officers sometimes pass crime scenes on their way from home to pick up their patrol cars.
He said he has seen a number of law violations en route to and from work, but can't take any action in his personal vehicle.
He said with the fleet bunched together at the Amnicola Highway lot it is vulnerable to heavy damage - as from tornadoes that passed a short distance away. He said a hail storm in March damaged a number of the patrol cars on the lot.