Martinsville, IN gets MRAP for SWAT. Officer steps on dick in interview.

[streck]

Semi-local story of Martinsville, IN getting equipment to include MRAP....LINK...with video report. SWAT officer interviewed specifically mentions returning veterans with explosives and IED knowledge as risk that justifies having MRAP. Jump to 1:50 ....

A lot of those weapons, uniforms, trucks and mine-resistant vehicles are patrolling the streets of central Indiana at virtually no cost to local law enforcement agencies.

“It saves a substantial amount of money,” said Steve Harless, deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Administration. “Last year alone we saved approximately $14 million and this year we’re on pace to save a little over $13 million.”

That’s millions of tax dollars saved by 326 Indiana sheriffs and police chiefs who otherwise could not afford the gear they say they need to protect the public from increasingly heavily armored criminals.

“When I first started we really didn’t have the violence that we see today,” said Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department. “The weaponry is totally different now that it was in the beginning of my career, plus, you have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build IEDs and to defeat law enforcement techniques.”

As he spoke, Downing was perched in the driver’s seat of a $650,000 Mine Resistant Vehicle (MRAP) that once protected soldiers in Afghanistan from mines, rocket-propelled grenades and .50-caliber weapons.

The Morgan County SWAT Team acquired the armored vehicle for essentially the cost of gas and the time of two deputies to drive to Mississippi and pick it up and bring it back home to Martinsville.

“We were actually approached when we’d stop to get fuel by people wanting to know why we needed this…what were we going to use it for? ‘Are you coming to take our guns away?’” said Downing. “To come and take away their firearms…that absolutely is not the reason why we go this vehicle. We got this vehicle because of the need and because of increased violence that we have been facing over the last few years.

The school shooting was one teen boy shooting another teen boy outside the school door and then running away. LINK ....I don't think the MRAP would have helped.
Despite the claims, Martinsville is a very small town with no real violence issues.

Congrats on your new parade vehicle that you probably won't be able to afford to maintain if you actually used it.

[Caeser25]

Politics aside. They were given an MRAP and it saved millions of dollars for the taxpayer. With that kind of logic, no wonder we're broke.

[SomeOtherGuy]

I can't see any good reason for small towns to have MRAPs... but .... I seem to remember that 20-30 years ago, it was common for similar departments to be given ex-mil M113 APCs (tracked APCs) along the same lines. Also pointless then and probably even worse maintenance hogs.

You can interpret this many ways, but I have come to look at this as the feds having bought 1000's of vehicles for one very specific use, and once that use is gone or the types are obsolete and superceded, they are trying to find a way to look financially responsible to Congress and certain voters, instead of telling those parties that the billions of dollars they recently spent on those vehicles was flushed down the drain and is worth no more than scrap value. Which in reality is the case, but giveaways to police departments are a smokescreen.

Chances are many of these MRAPs will be out of service in a year or two, when the huge cost of maintenance, fuel, tires and even minimal training isn't seen as worthwhile compared to more useful training, ordinary police cruisers, more officers, etc. Just as I haven't seen anyone use an M113 in a looooong time.

[chuckman]

You can always justify anything. Incredible.

[ZGXtreme]

If agencies and officers would simply stop trying to over articulate why they "need" a MRAP it'd help their cause. If we sourced one and I was put in front of a reporter by the PIO, I'd simply tell them; "We avoided the upfront cost associated with a BearCat by accepting a vehicle that offers the same protection and maybe a little more than needed. Overkill for our set of requirements, most likely, but we saved the tax payer's money by accepting a capable vehicle for free or a greatly reduced price in lieu of writing Lenco a check."

[streck]

Or stop trying to push the idea that returning vets are Rambos willing to to take an M-60 to your little town.....

[markm]

IEDs are always going off in my city. You guys can chose to ignore it, but the shit is real.

[Grand58742]

I like the justification that "it didn't cost the taxpayer anything."

Kinda forgot about that up front cost that the taxpayer paid for it...

[ZGXtreme]

I like the justification that "it didn't cost the taxpayer anything."

Kinda forgot about that up front cost that the taxpayer paid for it...

Why spend the money twice and just trash them? Not saying I disagree but it does save some agenices the upfront cost. Personally, stock em like the Corps is now doing, or reallocate them all to CBP and line the border with em.

Or stop trying to push the idea that returning vets are Rambos willing to to take an M-60 to your little town.....

That was just a retarded stretch in trying to articulate whatever he wanted to say.

[Grand58742]

Why spend the money twice and just trash them? Not saying I disagree but it does save some agenices the upfront cost. Personally, stock em like the Corps is now doing, or reallocate them all to CBP and line the border with em.

I think that would be a great idea. We do it with aircraft out at Davis-Monthan. Why can't we mothball them if/when they are needed again? I know there's going to be more than a few "surplus" but it's the principle that a small town had need to justify the "need" for an IED protective vehicle.

It just made me chuckle because they had a couple of grand sunk into it with the emergency equipment and paint. So for certain it wasn't "no expense to the taxpayer."