The Athens County Sheriff’s Office is the only local law enforcement agency that has military equipment through the department of defense, which approves anything from flashlights to MRAPS for officer use
Suggested HED: Athens’ arsenal: Law enforcement protect with plethora of weapons
The Athens County Sheriff’s office has an armored vehicle fit for war — a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle — but Interim Sheriff Rodney Smith hasn’t seen it since it was picked up in Texas by deputies last April.
That’s not the only equipment the sheriff’s office owns.
The sheriff’s office holds, according to its records:
- 31 .40-caliber Glock 22s
- Four Glock 23s
- Two Glock 27s semi-automatic pistols
- 26 12-gauge Remington 870 shotguns, which usually stay in the deputies’ vehicles
- Four variants of AR15 rifles.
- Two generators, 24 optics
- 20 1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols
- Seven M16 assault rifle variants
- Five M14 rifles
- Four humvees
- Two utility trucks
Some of that equipment was acquired through a federal program that gives military equipment to local enforcement agencies for free — under the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1033 program.
In Athens County, it helps to stretch the sheriff’s office $1.8 million budget. This year, $40,000 was appropriated to the office’s equipment and supplies.
The sheriff’s office applied for the MRAP after an incident in 2013 where deputies approached a suspect’s home in one of their four armored team vehicles, only to have the suspect open fire on deputies with a rifle.
He hit the vehicle multiple times, though no one was injured — including Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle’s daughter, a deputy.
However, the vehicle wasn’t 100 percent bulletproof.
“When they went down under fire, they were lucky nobody got killed,” Smith said. “We needed (the MRAP). Nothing in North America is going to penetrate this thing.
“To me, it was a no-brainer. It’s free.”
Though the MRAP, one of the sexier items in the sheriff’s office inventory, has never been used, the rest is what deputies are carrying in their holsters or in their vehicles every day. Smith hasn't yet seen the MRAP since it was painted sheriff’s office-colors last spring.
The vehicle’s maintenance is still paid for by the sheriff’s department.
“We don’t get (the MRAP) out. The only time you’ll see it is when we get the oil changed,” Smith said. “Or when it hits the fan.”
Deputies in the sheriff’s office undergo specific training for each weapon.
“Whatever you carry and have available to it, you qualify for it and have to be proficient with that specific weapon,” Smith said.
The Athens Police Department, which does not participate in the federal program, has an inventory that varies slightly.
APD now has, according to records from City Auditor Kathy Hecht’s Office:
- 10 AR15 rifles
- 10 .40-caliber Glock 23s
- 22 Glock 22s
- Four Glock 27 pistols
- Two 9 mm Glock 19 pistols
- Seven semi-automatic Benelli M2 shotguns, which are in each of the marked cruisers
- More than 30 tasers
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APD’s budget is closer to $3.8 million. Many of the weapons, including the AR15s and the Benelli M2 shotguns, cost more than $1,000 each, though Glock pistols are usually less than $500 and tasers can run more than $800 each.
Though APD hasn’t acquired any of the military equipment itself, it can borrow the equipment from the sheriff’s office.
Although police departments have always been considered paramilitary, Pyle said, officers have reason to believe that applying for such heavy-duty equipment could make them appear “militarized.”
The sheriff’s office humvees used to be displayed in local parades, Smith added, but citizens won’t be seeing them anymore, unless if they’re out pursuing a crime.
“We think that we have this equipment to help someone who needs it,” Smith said. “If there was a situation where somebody was under gunfire, you’d certainly want this agency to have that equipment.”
The Ohio University Police Department does not currently have any equipment acquired through the 1033 program, OUPD Lt. Tim Ryan said, though they are members of the program and do bid on equipment offered through it.
“A vast majority of ‘military grade equipment’ distributed through this program is equipment already available for sale on the open market,” OUPD Chief Andrew Powers said in an email. “It’s not uncommon to find such mundane equipment as flashlights and furniture offered through this program.”
OUPD declined to provide documents of its inventory and weapons, citing the Ohio Revised Code section 149.433, which cites security reasons for not revealing departmental records.
The 1033 program has recently attracted negative attention after two months of protest in Ferguson, Missouri where MRAPs and humvees have been used to disperse protests calling for action against Darren Wilson a Ferguson Police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in early August.
Kelli Oliver, OU Student Senate’s minority affairs commissioner, was among as many as five students that traveled to Ferguson this past weekend to protest what she said is unethical behavior exhibited by their police force. Oliver’s efforts were a part of the “Weekend of Resistance” organized by a group known as Ferguson October.
Partially due to the negative attention police have received since August, the Athens-OU Joint Police Advisory Council hosted a cookout Sept. 30 outside of Baker University Center to better the relationship between students and law enforcement.
“When they had the police cookout, all the officers were armed and I thought that was confusing,” Oliver said. “If you can’t trust your citizens enough that you can’t be unarmed for a peaceful gathering in Athens — that’s an issue.”
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