INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River Sheriff’s Department is beefing up its armored forces, recently acquiring a second armored personnel carrier that the Army dumped.
Several calls to the Sheriff’s department from sister publication Vero Beach 32963 about the reasons for the purchase of the behemoths that weigh up to 24 tons, more than two African elephants, went unanswered over the past couple of weeks.
The main reason for making the purchase, it seems, is because Sheriff Deryl Loar could and because it was cheap.
The Sheriff’s Department had already acquired an M113 armored personnel carrier in 2011 for the standard $2,000 Army surplus price. These were the most widely used armored vehicles during the Vietnam War.
Now the Sheriff’s department has added to that war arsenal with the purchase of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicle the Army calls an MRAP for the same price.
The first M113 cost between $412,000 and $658,000 new, and the new MRAP acquisition cost $244,844, so in each case the $2,000 price tag surely seemed like a bargain – even though they’re not exactly cheap to operate.
To be sure, the Indian River Sheriff’s Office isn’t the only local law enforcement agency that was offered this kind of war materiel and couldn’t resist snapping it up.
The police departments of the cities of Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere were able to resist the temptation of the big, camouflage-painted MRAPs, but the cities of Fort Pierce and West Melbourne got themselves one, as did the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
Because the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office didn’t return Vero Beach 32963’s calls for comment, the publication checked with the law enforcement agencies to the south to get an explanation for such purchases.
“It’s not something that we are going to use every day,” said Sgt. Eric Rothery of the West Melbourne Police Department, which has 30 officers and no SWAT vehicles.
Rothery added that even if the department somehow were to face a big problem, it would probably call on assistance from nearby law enforcement agencies before rolling the MRAP through the streets of West Melbourne.
“Our department would never be able to afford something like his brand-new,” said Sgt. Melissa Jaques of the Fort Pierce Police Department, lending more weight to the theory that local police forces find the price irresistible.
She said her MRAP had only 5,000 miles on it.
However, she said the department had to spend more to get the vehicle home.
Fort Pierce Police Officer Keith Holmes had to drive to the Army’s Camp Shelby in Mississippi to pick it up and haul it home in a city-owned semi-trailer.
All stateside transportation costs are borne by the acquiring local law enforcement agency, so presumably, the Indian River Sheriff’s Department had to do something similar.
Fellsmere Police Chief Keith Touchberry said his department saw no need to buy any tanks or other heavy equipment from the army and “we don’t have any grenade launchers, either.”
Asked if he could see any use for heavy fighting equipment like the MRAPs, Touchberry said: “I would only take some of that for the zombie apocalypse.”
Steve Marcinik, the public information officer for the Sebastian Police Department, said his agency hasn’t taken any surplus military goods for many years. And when it did many years ago, it only bought a truck and some helmets.
The armored personnel carriers might seem like a bargain at the resale price of $2,000 but they weren’t without problems.
Originally, they were considered better than Humvees when it came to protecting troops from landmines, but because of the high center of gravity of these enormous beast-like machines, they suffered from a high rollover rate on the poor roads and bridges of Afghanistan, which could raise questions how well they would perform stamping out possible riots in Indian River County citrus groves frequently bisected by irrigation canals.
They can, however, travel in water up to three feet deep.
The Pentagon closed down the production line for the MRAPs in 2012.
The data on the military surplus purchases came from Ben Wolf, communications director of the Florida Department of Management Services.
The MRAPs were part of a vast arsenal dumped by the Army that went to law enforcement agencies – and even some schools – all across the country and also included helicopters, dive boats, rifles, grenade launchers and even gymnastics equipment.
The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office got two helicopters in the late 1990s, also at a cost of $2,000 each, and then got two more in 2009, although Wolf said the latter two only cost between $500 and $1,000 and were likely cannibalized for spare parts to keep the first two flying.
Under the military surplus program, local law enforcement agencies are typically charged 10 percent of what the Pentagon paid for them, but pistols and shotguns go for a flat fee of $50 each and M-14 and M-16 rifles for $100.
According to the database of military items that went to agencies across the state of Florida provided by Wolf, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Department has amassed $1.23 million worth of equipment over the years.
