Police Scramble to Keep Up With Accelerating Gas Prices

"A police officer's Ford Crown Victoria often doubles as an office. An office that has to be heated in the winter, air-conditioned in the summer and go from zero to 60 in seconds. All that takes gas.

"Virginia state troopers burn about 200,000 gallons in their cruisers each month. Sheriff's deputies in one Southern Maryland county drive more than 430,000 miles a month, and state police officers there routinely use a tank of gasoline on every eight-hour shift.

"As fuel prices rise steeply across the nation, the region's police departments are bracing to blow their budgets and, in some cases, are considering strategies to conserve." ...