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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D