The Gwinnett County sheriff's office has a unique exception to a federal recall of military equipment from local law enforcement.
A federal recall of tracked armored personnel carriers doesn't apply to a M114 APC that Gwinnett County has maintained and used for years.
Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway says his office was given the military vehicle, which was designed to transport infantry, by a private citizen more than a decade ago.
Only vehicles obtained through the federal 1033 grant program have to be returned.
President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13688 in January after local police were widely criticized for using armored trucks, riot gear, tear gas and assault rifles on civilians in Ferguson, Mo.
Despite controversy over the police's militarization in the U.S., Conway disagrees with the president's directive.
“That equipment saves lives,” he says. “It’s a travesty that the president wants to take that equipment away from law enforcement. It’s just going to lead to deaths.”
Besides tracked armored vehicles, the recall also includes bayonets and grenade launchers. The recall started Oct. 1 and will continue through April 1, 2016.
In an interview with WSB Radio, Conway said the M114 is routinely used by his deputies as well as to assist local police departments.
“There’s many advantages to the track vehicles... you’ve got more cover,” he says. “A person can’t shoot under the vehicle and hit someone on the other side. It’s likely the tracks are going to stop bullets too.”
The 1033 program authorized by Congress in 1990 has "shipped off more than $4.3 billion worth of [military] material to state and local cops" to fight the war on drugs, according to a report by Mother Jones.
Conway says this federal program is a good option for police departments, since the vehicles and weapons were already paid for using tax dollars.
Conway says a commercial armored vehicle can run between $200,000 and $400,000 and many small departments simply can’t afford it.
“I would much rather be able to use military equipment the military no longer needs as opposed to that equipment being melted down and sold for scrap,” he says.
The sheriff’s office in neighboring Walton County had to give its M113 back earlier this month.
Conway is offering use of Gwinnett’s vehicle to any local law enforcement that have had to return theirs.
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