A cadre of Ford employees have banded together to ask the automaker to stop building and selling police vehicles for the first time in 70 years.
According to automotive website Jalopnik, approximately 100 employees support a letter to CEO Jim Hackett and Chairman Bill Ford asking for the change.
According to a tip in the Jalopnik inbox, a number of Black Ford employees came together to raise concern about their employer’s manufacture of police vehicles. (We have since received clarification that the letter was written composed by a group of Black and white Ford employees.)
Ford wouldn’t be the first company to come under scrutiny for making equipment for law enforcement, as folks around the country are raising flags about who gets contracts to produce what for use by police.
From small players like bike companies — such as Trek, who makes police bikes — to behemoths like Amazon and its facial-recognition technology a number of companies are facing pressure now, and Ford certainly isn’t the first company with internal revolt. –Jalopnik
According to Jakopnik‘s source, [CEO Jim] Hackett “quickly rejected the idea of Ford halting sales of police vehicles.”
Ford makes around two-thirds of police vehicles in the US. While the Crown Victoria interceptor was discontinued in 2011, the company makes tons of Explorers, F-150s, Transits, Fusions and Expeditions for law enforcement purposes. As one might suspect, the company gets tons of free publicity from the program – not all of it positive, especially in recent weeks amid national protests over the death of George Floyd after a white police Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes.
According to automotive website Jalopnik, approximately 100 employees support a letter to CEO Jim Hackett and Chairman Bill Ford asking for the change.
According to a tip in the Jalopnik inbox, a number of Black Ford employees came together to raise concern about their employer’s manufacture of police vehicles. (We have since received clarification that the letter was written composed by a group of Black and white Ford employees.)
Ford wouldn’t be the first company to come under scrutiny for making equipment for law enforcement, as folks around the country are raising flags about who gets contracts to produce what for use by police.
From small players like bike companies — such as Trek, who makes police bikes — to behemoths like Amazon and its facial-recognition technology a number of companies are facing pressure now, and Ford certainly isn’t the first company with internal revolt. –Jalopnik
According to Jakopnik‘s source, [CEO Jim] Hackett “quickly rejected the idea of Ford halting sales of police vehicles.”
Ford makes around two-thirds of police vehicles in the US. While the Crown Victoria interceptor was discontinued in 2011, the company makes tons of Explorers, F-150s, Transits, Fusions and Expeditions for law enforcement purposes. As one might suspect, the company gets tons of free publicity from the program – not all of it positive, especially in recent weeks amid national protests over the death of George Floyd after a white police Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes.
Comment