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Jeremy Bender reports that eight different law enforcement agencies in Indiana have purchased massive Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs) that were formerly used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The MRAP is a bulletproof, 60,000-pound, six-wheeled behemoth with heavy armor, a gunner's turret and the word "SHERIFF" emblazoned on its flank.
Pulaski County, home to 13,124 people, is one of the counties that have purchased an MRAP from military surplus. When asked to justify the purchase of a former military vehicle, Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer told the Indy Star:
"The United States of America has become a war zone. There's violence in the workplace, there's violence in schools and there's violence in the streets. You are seeing police departments going to a semi-military format because of the threats we have to counteract. If driving a military vehicle is going to protect officers, then that's what I'm going to do."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday June 11 2014, @09:23PM
Training can be fun too. From personal experience driving some .mil vehicles is not as simple as jumping in the seat of a F-150 and taking off. And training takes fuel and parts and maint and some training for the mechanics too.
Note we've been running this against 3rd world countries for years. Here have some old F16, just sign on the line for this service and parts contract and also you'll have to do what we say or we won't fix your toys anymore...
The tools a trillion dollar military uses don't scale down so well to a two million dollar police dept.