Business has picked up at the State Highway Patrol's used cruiser sale.

The patrol has received about 25 calls and sold several cars since it sent out a statewide news release Friday saying there were more than 200 cars available, Dan Kane reports.

These are high-mileage, but regularly maintained Chevy Impalas and Ford Crown Victorias that are three to six years old. They range in price from $4,800 to $6,500.

Each car sold generates money for new patrol cars.

The patrol is having a difficult time moving the cars because the typical customers — local police agencies — haven't been buying. The patrol said the cars have already had the price cut by roughly $500, and there are further discounts for cars that have more than 90,000 on the odometer.

For more information, contact the patrol at 919-733-7956 and ask for Sgt. Frank Pierce or Joan Curtis.

CHARLOTTE - Democrat Beverly Perdue came to Republican Pat McCrory's backyard today and slammed the Charlotte mayor for "whining about crime" while vetoing a move to put more cops on the street.

Perdue also criticized McCrory for supporting school vouchers, which she said would take $1 billion out of public education, and opposing children's health insurance, reports Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer.

"The mayor of Charlotte may be a good guy," she told about 40 people. "He's a good mayor of Charlotte. And I'm asking you to let him remain as mayor."

Perdue referred to McCrory's 2006 veto of a city budget that included money for 70 new police officers. It also included a 9 perent property tax increase, the first hike in 10 years and the reason for McCrory's veto. The Democratic-controlled city council overrode the veto.

Since McCrory was first elected in 1995, the city has added 400 police officers. He's also pushed for more state money for prosecutors.

Perdue has run ads attacking McCrory on vouchers. She says giving state money to families who might choose private schools would drain money from public schools. McCrory has said he supports "selective use" of vouchers for special needs students.

Although she said vouchers would take $1 billion out of public education, her ads say they would cost the state $900 million. That assumes that every student home schooled or enrolled in private school in North Carolina would get a voucher.

The McCrory campaign wasn't immediately available for comment.

Former Durham Police Chief Teresa Chambers is back on the police beat. Chambers was sworn in Thursday as the new police chief for Riverdale Park, Md., a suburb of Washington.

Chambers became a cause celebre after she left Durham to head the National Parks police force in Washington. She was removed from her post in 2004 when she talked to the media about budget cutbacks on the police force, and she has been fighting her firing in the federal legal system ever since, reports Barb Barrett.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group helping Chambers with her case, said Chambers’ legal action now is awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In her new job, Chambers returns to Prince George’s County, Md., where she was a police officer for two decades.