Abbeville Police Chief Tony Hardy has been in office for three weeks and in that time he has talked about trying to reduce crime in the city, cut back on spending and putting a GPS in his patrol cars to monitor his patrolmen.

Hardy spoke to the Abbeville Kiwanians at Tuesday’s weekly meeting. In his speech, he told the Kiwanians about some things he has already begun doing in the department. For starters, he trimmed some overtime and is looking to get rid of extra expenses.

His next undertaking is fixing his patrolmen on the streets.

Hardy is in the process of purchasing GPS units to be installed in patrol units as a way to keep an eye on what and where the cars are going during the day and at night.

“I know there is a problem,” said Hardy. “People call and complain. They say they see a police car speeding.”

For $29 per month per car, Hardy can place a GPS in a unit. That system can be set to tell him how fast the car travels during a shift or how long it sits at a certain location.

The system will be able to also tell him if a patrol car is idle for hours or patrolling.

If a patrol car is speeding, Hardy will be contacted by the system, and he will address the issue.

Not every patrol car will have a GPS. Hardy has the capability to place the GPS on any patrol car, and the officer will not know if his car has one or not.

Delcambre’s Glenn Dore of Acadian Monitoring is expected to contact the chief and let his department sample GPSs for a couple of months.

“I think it will be good for the department,” said Hardy.