This Lenco Bearcat vehicle, valued at $256,000, was donated to the Floyd County Police Department by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. (Kim Sloan / Rome News-Tribune)
But the vehicle, valued at $256,000, is in the garage of the department thanks to funds from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
And the only charge to Floyd County is $130 for stenciling the department’s name on the side of the vehicle, according to Ewing.
It started with a phone call that Ewing, who is also commander of the Floyd County SWAT team, received around 10 p.m. in October from a GEMA official.
“They had found some money, some homeland security money that they were going to spend like the next day,” Ewing said. “They were buying four new vehicles and they were going to place them strategically throughout the state.”
The other vehicles went to Savannah, Macon and Columbus. Floyd County was chosen to receive the one in the northwest corner of the state.
The vehicle is equipped with an entry tool that allows officers to “ram” into a building if needed, a gas deployment tool and a hatch on top.
It’s also bulletproof.
“Say we have an officer who is being shot or trapped,” Ewing said. “It doesn’t matter if they shoot at us or not. We can recover our people; we can recover people who are trapped. Gunfire is no problem with this thing.”
Ewing and assistant SWAT commander Chad Johnson received training on the vehicle.
The county will share the vehicle with other counties if needed, according to Ewing.
--JUST SAYING!
Politicians get elected by having "R" after their name.
It's just another burden on the taxpayers when all they do is whine about not being paid enough and not having money to replace cars and other equipment.
Your "guess" comment and your "morons", "babies crying" and "You people are ignorant" comments make me wonder if you ever paid for anything yourself. You sound like a teenager or an overgrown adolescent in mama's basement.
Some people never quite get the concept of fiscal responsibility.
GEMA: We found some vertical urinals.
Ewing and Johnson: We've been selected to take two and hang them on either side of our quarter-million dollar Lenco Bearcat clowns' vehicle.
Local insurance company: Smiling like his head is buried in a bucket of Guinness.
I would guess that a set of tires alone would cost upwards of 5000 dollars or more. They will probably have to fly in a mechanic when it has any kind of major problem. The regular maintenance has to be several thousand a year. The insurance bill will be several thousand dollars a year on something like this that can be driven on a public roadway.
The 256,000 dollars to pay for this new toy would have been better spent on upgrading the radar system to detect tornadoes in Rome and Floyd County since the money came from Georgia Emergency Management.
Its highest and best use will be a Parade vehicle!
If money was truly "Found", it should have been used on infrastructure,keeping the White House open for tours,paying down the debt, preparing for sequester..
I had a friend who worked for the government and they had to drive vehicles around-Just for the hell of it-So they proved it was needed-Their job was to log miles on vehicles which sat idle in a parking lot.
It's things like this that has our nation in debt. If the money wasnt needed then why not do the smart thing and not spend it. Our government has operated for too long thinking they have to spend all the money that they have (plus 10 times more)
If the money wasn't needed then why not do the smart thing and not spend it.
However I bet I do know the answer. If all the funding received during one fiscal period is not spent, then it's usually lost. Unless a budget line is specifically designated as an accumulating fund, then if you don't use it you lose it when it comes to government funding. Intelligent? NO But is how the game is played.
Seems like a waste of money. But than again all police forces seem to be going para-military.
More like knocking a hole in Billy Bob's trailer to gas him out.