Daytona Beach, FL – Volusia County’s Sheriff says an executive order signed by President Barack Obama shows he doesn’t “appear to care” about law enforcement officers.
In a phone interview during Wednesday’s Marc Bernier Show on WNDB, Ben Johnson made that remark after saying that the Sheriff’s Office was being forced by the state to turn in 1 of its 2 armored personnel carriers.
An executive order signed by Obama earlier this year has the Florida Department of Management Services demanding that VCSO and other Florida law enforcement agencies turn in similar equipment out of concerns that police are behaving more like the military.
Obama’s executive order – signed on January 16th – came after several highly publicized confrontations that led to people being killed by officers in several states, including the shooting death of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.
VCSO purchased the M113 (pictured above) for $1,500 through a government-run program and sunk about $30,000 more to get it in working condition, including spending money for tracks that won’t damage roads.
Johnson says that vehicle has been worth every penny considering similar vehicles bought commercially can run up to $500,000 and that’s it’s useful for more than just situations like school shootings, armed standoffs or terrorist acts.
“We’ve also had to use it in natural disasters,” Johnson added. “It was the only vehicle in certain places that could get in and help our citizens [during tornadoes].”
Johnson admitted that there’s cases where law enforcement agencies have acted too much like the military and that some changes have to be made, but he insists taking away surplus military equipment like the APC will lead to more lives lost in the future, especially the lives of police officers.
“You have a president that does not appear to care for law enforcement officers,” Johnson said. “That’s the belief most law enforcement officers have and I share that belief.”
Johnson also said that he doesn’t think the federal government has “a clue” about what’s going on locally and that these kinds of moves need to be done at the state, county or municipal level where locals know what is best.
VCSO will be allowed, for now to keep its other APC, a vehicle that uses wheels instead of tracks but isn’t as mobile when going off-road as the M113.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.