Sheriff Ken McGovern soon will take delivery of five new Crown Victoria police interceptors, complete with heavy-duty shocks, heavy-duty batteries, heavy-duty alternators and all the other heavy-duty equipment his department needs to carry out weighty law-enforcement duties throughout Douglas County.

This time next year, of course, he’ll be buying something else.

“It’s the end of an era,” McGovern said.

Wednesday night, Douglas County commissioners agreed to McGovern’s request to spend $183,224 on a new Ford Expedition, two new Ford Tauruses and the five new Crown Vics, each outfitted for service.

But after nearly 30 years of virtually continuous duty in the county’s law-enforcement patrol fleet, the Crown Vic is being phased out by Ford.

Set to take its place is a new police interceptor based on the Taurus, one that will boast all the special capabilities that deputies and officers have come to expect — and many of the familiar features that motorists have long been wary of spotting in their rearview mirrors.

“There’ll still be lights,” said patrol Lt. Gary Bunting, who’s been with the sheriff’s department since 1996.

The department regularly replaces a portion of its 17-vehicle patrol fleet annually. A typical patrol car logs about 40,000 miles a year; one of the Crown Vics being replaced this year already has traveled 106,000 miles.

Commissioner Jim Flory, who started work at the sheriff’s department in 1966 and served on patrol from 1972 to 1979, is confident that the new cars — both for this year and next — will meet the public’s needs.

But don’t forget: The Crown Vic wasn’t always the standard for patrol. He recalls back in 1964 and 1965, when Rex Johnson’s department was running Dodge Magnum 440s back in 1964 and 1965.

“They were 4-speeds, four on the floor,” Flory said, after Wednesday’s meeting. “They were quite a patrol car. That was a classic.”