While many law enforcement agencies across the country are having to give back their tracked armored personnel carriers to the federal government, the Gwinnett Sheriff’s Office is able to keep its vehicle.
Sheriff Butch Conway says his office was given the M114 APC by a private citizen more than a decade ago. Only those obtained through the federal 1033 grant program have to go back.
Even so, Conway disagrees with the directive by President Barrack Obama.
“That equipment saves lives,” he says. “It’s a travesty that the President wants to take that equipment away from law enforcement. It’s just going to lead to deaths.”
Obama issued the order earlier this year in wake of the rioting in Ferguson, Missouri after an officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old man. Police were criticized for using armored trucks, riot gear, tear gas and assault rifles.
Besides tracked armored vehicles, the recall also includes bayonets and grenade launchers. It began Oct. 1 and will continue through April 1, 2016.
Conway tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish the M114 is routinely used by his deputies as well as to assist local police departments.
“There’s many advantages to the track vehicles... you’ve got more cover,” he says. “A person can’t shoot under the vehicle and hit someone on the other side. It’s likely the tracks are going to stop bullets too.”
Conway says a commercial armored vehicle can run between $200,000 and $400,000 and many small departments simply can’t afford it. He says that’s why the federal program was a good option to provide the vehicles which were already paid for through tax dollars.
“I would much rather be able to use military equipment the military no longer needs as opposed to that equipment being melted down and sold for scrap,” he says.
The sheriff’s office in neighboring Walton County had to give its M113 back earlier this month.
Conway is offering use of Gwinnett’s vehicle to any local law enforcement that have had to return theirs.
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