Pubdate: Sun, 17 Dec 2000
Source: San Luis Obispo County Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Tribune
Contact:  P.O. Box 112, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406-0112
Fax: 805.781.7905
Website: http://www.thetribunenews.com/
Author: Richard Jackoway, The Tribune

FOR SAFETY, SHERIFF REQUESTS ARMORED VEHICLE

But ACLU Spokesman Opposes Purchase, Seeing It As Unnecessary In This County

The Sheriff's Department won't get its first "tank" without a fight.

The county Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to approve 
using $49,300 in drug forfeiture money to rebuild two surplus military 
armored personnel carriers into one transport for use in hostage and other 
high-risk situations.

The item is on the part of the supervisors' agenda that is designed for 
noncontroversial items. But not everyone thinks the purchase is routine.

"I'm completely outraged by this," said Hank Alberts, local spokesman for 
the American Civil Liberties Union. "This is completely intolerable."

Alberts has led a charge to create a civilian oversight of law enforcement 
panel and sees the armored carrier as one more example of the 
militarization of police forces nationwide.

"Personally I don't feel any safer knowing that this is going to be used in 
this county," Alberts said. "Living in SLO County, we now have police 
helicopters and SWAT teams. It reminds me of days I was in Korea. You're 
living in an occupied armed camp."

Alberts may not feel safer, but Sheriff Patrick Hedges said in his request 
to the supervisors that the 1-ton armored vehicle is needed to protect his 
officers.

"(The Sheriff's) tactical team is in need of a utility vehicle which can 
transport equipment and team members to and from high-risk incidents and 
can safely deploy team members into high-risk zones and would be 
immediately available to rescue wounded officers or citizens from 
high-risk, exposed locations," Hedges said.

The $49,300 restoration would be funded by money from the county's drug 
asset forfeiture trust fund. The fund is the county's portion of funds and 
sales of property seized during drug arrests.

Alberts is researching the need for such a vehicle in a county that sees 
relatively few armed confrontations between police and the public.

"Someone is going to have to give me some compelling evidence that a tank 
is needed in this county," Alberts said.

Hedges reported that the Sheriff's Department tactical team has responded 
to 38 high-risk incidents in the past five years and at least 15 of the 
incidents involved "dangerous individuals, armed with firearms, who were 
barricaded in a home or structure, made threats to shoot or had fired their 
weapons and refused to surrender."

The carrier would have greatly reduced the risk to officers and the public 
in each of the cases, Hedges said.
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