General Motors recall affects Manatee County Sheriff's Office

MANATEE -- General Motors is recalling nearly 6,300 police cars in the United States because the electric power-assisted steering can fail, affecting the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office has 110 of the cars in its fleet that are subject to the recall, according to sheriff's office spokesman Dave Bristow.

"We haven't heard back on what they're going to do, and that's what we're waiting on," Bristow said. "As soon as we find out, we will take the vehicles into Cox Chevrolet. They'll be dealt with there."

According to Bay News 9, the recall covers Chevrolet Caprice Police Pursuit vehicles from the 2014 to 2016 model years. The cause of the problem is corrosion on a connector, GM said. If it happens, the cars still have manual steering, but that requires more effort to turn the wheels and increases the risk of a crash.

The sheriff's office learned of the recall over the last few days because the agency had some new vehicles coming in and they were subject to the recall so they never exchanged hands, according to Bristow. The spokesman said the agency realized some of the vehicles it already has were also affected by the recall.

"They already went through one recall and it wasn't successful in what they did," Bristow said of GM. "You're always concerned (about recalls)... we just are waiting on GM and we're hoping it'll be sooner than later."

Other law enforcement officials throughout Manatee County said their respective agencies aren't affected by the GM recall.

"The recall that I saw only affected 2014 to 2016 Chevy Caprices, and we don't have any of those, so we're not affected," said Palmetto Police Chief Scott Tyler.

At the Bradenton Police Department, Bradenton Police Capt. William Fowler said the agency was dealing with a recall of its own to which more than a dozen of its vehicles are subjected.

"We're looking at maybe 13 vehicles -- Dodge Chargers that are getting recalled," he said. "We're taking it case by case and we're just waiting to see what Dodge says."

Fowler was unable to immediately provide specifics on the parts of the vehicles affected.

On Anna Maria Island, Holmes Beach Police Chief William Tokajer said all of his agency's trucks are from Ford Motor Co.

Bradenton Beach Police Chief Sam Speciale said his agency isn't affected by the GM recall.

"We have all Ford Explorers, and the Chevies we do have are old Tahoes," he said, "so I don't think they're covered by any of the recalls."

-- Bay News 9 contributed to this report.

Amaris Castillo, law enforcement/island reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7051. Follow her on Twitter@AmarisCastillo.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 10:12 PM with the headline "General Motors recall affects Manatee County Sheriff's Office ."