clipped from: www.nytimes.com   

SUWANEE, Ga. — People around here are seeing a lot more of Officer Robert Stewart.

As gasoline soars past the $4-a-gallon mark, police chiefs in towns and cities across the country are ordering their officers out of the car and onto their feet in a budgetary scramble.

“I’ve always had a theory that one of the greatest inventions was police cars, because it made us more mobile,” Chief Hooper said. “And one of the worst inventions was air-conditioning, because we rolled our windows up.”

But not all officers have been so easily lured out of their cars.

“Candidly some of them have said, ‘Well, gee, you know, it’s hot out there.’ Well, if you go in that store, you’ll cool off, you’ll get to know the manager and you’ll get your presence known. We’ve had to educate them as to the benefits.”