As efforts to stop police brutality and defund the police continue, Ford Motor Company employees are taking direct action.
According to The Verge, a group of Ford employees has asked the automaker to stop making the Ford Police Interceptor and other pursuit-rated utility vehicles, which are built specifically for law enforcement. Also, new technologies are tested in Ford’s cop cars that benefit their overall lineup.
“We cannot claim to support the fight against systemic racism while supplying and supporting the very systems that perpetrate violence against Black Americans,” the group wrote, according to Jalopnik. “Throughout our history, the vehicles that Ford employees design and build have been used as accessories to police brutality and oppression.”
In response to the employee’s concerns, Ford CEO Jim Hackett has told employees that they will continue their commitment to law enforcement as he doesn’t think it’s “controversial that the Ford Police Interceptor helps officers do their job.” Hackett believes taking away police vehicles “would be doing harm” and “making it harder for them to do their job.
“The issues plaguing police credibility have nothing to do with the vehicles they’re driving,” he wrote in an internal letter. “In fact, as we imagine the future power of our connected vehicles, smarter Ford vehicles can be used to not only improve officers’ ability to protect and serve, but also provide data that can make police safer and more accountable.”
In early June, Hackett asserted that Ford isn’t interested in superficial actions in response to protests for racial justice. But seemingly, the company is not ready to sever the relationship or, most importantly, lose money.
