The Bossier City Council on Oct. 7 approved a set of amendments to the city’s vehicle use policy that narrow eligibility for city-owned take-home vehicles and add compliance and liability provisions.

Councilman Hammonds proposed a package of edits to the vehicle use policy during a first-reading update to the City of Bossier City code. The adopted amendments restrict city-owned take-home vehicles to "only full time employees of the city of Bossier," require employees to report driver’s license revocation or moving violations immediately to a supervisor, and prohibit operating a city vehicle while consuming alcohol. The amendments also add a requirement that a non-city passenger must complete an indemnification agreement prior to departure in order to ride in a city vehicle, and clarify that drivers are personally responsible for traffic and parking fines except those caused by the condition of the city vehicle.

Councilman Hammonds said the indemnification requirement was not intended to apply to public safety scenarios; the council accepted an exclusion for public safety officers and vehicles. The council debated practical implications — for example, whether an ambulance passenger or a person placed in a patrol vehicle after arrest would be required to sign an indemnity form — and members confirmed the amendments exclude emergency and public-safety situations. Chief Segon addressed questions about the policy’s effect on public-safety operations and confirmed emergency medical and arrest-related transports were not the target of the indemnification requirement.

Citizen David Crockett spoke during public comment in support of the changes and urged the council to consider broader policy work on take-home vehicle usage and long-term cost savings. Crockett said in part, “I fully support what you're saying,” and urged the council to think about the city’s overall vehicle fleet policies to control mileage and replacement costs.

The council voted first to adopt Hammonds’s amendments and then to approve the vehicle use policy as amended; both votes carried by voice vote.