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.