Gwinnett Daily Post

LAWRENCEVILLE -- General Motors' recent recall of thousands of police vehicles includes most of those used by the Gwinnett County police and sheriff's departments, but officials believe the cause for concern is minimal.

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration published recently the General Motors report issuing the recall of Chevrolet Impala police vehicles with model years 2008 through 2012. The action -- which affects about 36,000 units nationwide -- is a result of concerns that the vehicles' "front lower control arms may fracture."

"A broken control arm can result in the loss of control of the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash," the NHTSA notification said.

Approximately 700 of Gwinnett's 1,000 pursuit vehicles fall under the warranty, county fleet maintenance director Michael Lindsey told the Daily Post. Lindsey said the county has known about the recall for about three weeks, and is awaiting word from GM on the next move.

Control arms are part of the county's routine vehicle inspections, Lindsey said, and additional checks lately haven't found cracking in any vehicles.

"We have not seen one that is cracked," he said, adding there had been no reports of steering difficulties or other safety concerns potentially related to the recall.

It's likely that GM will eventually send Gwinnett replacements for each vehicle's control arms, which will be installed by county employees. Lindsey said that process would likely be just a "20 or 30 minute job" on each cruiser.

"We're just sitting here waiting on the information," Lindsey said. "But once we have it and we know what their plan is, and what they want us to do, it shouldn't take us too long to go through these things ... We're not anticipating it being a huge problem."