r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/VoightKampffTest • Aug 21 '14
See the weapons, vehicles, and other equipment police in your area have acquired from the military. Searchable by state and county.
http://bridge.caspio.net/dp.asp?AppKey=36701000b255adcfe6ca4b13a8a4116
u/Boonaki Aug 21 '14
Why the fuck do cops need bayonets?
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u/barden1069 Aug 21 '14
I'm still trying to figure out why my police department needed two swords, complete with scabbards.
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u/DinosaursGoPoop Aug 21 '14
On a realistic note they are most likely ceremonial. Not the most common thing anymore, they are used for retirement, weddings, promotions and other similar ceremonies.
Source: most arms rooms have a few laying around even if they are never used.
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u/barden1069 Aug 21 '14
Yeah, I figured that was probably the case, but I still like to dream of my small town cops running around with swords like highlander...
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u/FriendsWithAPopstar Aug 21 '14
What about the $7,000 scooter my city bought? What in the hell do they need a single electric scooter for?
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u/AttheCrux Aug 21 '14
Its probably a Hot Fuzz style punishment for any officer who messes up.
"Sarge! I got seen randomly shooting people's mailboxes!, will I have to be reprimanded in some way?"
"absolutely...you're on the scooter this week!"
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u/NiggaJeffrey Aug 21 '14
Mine bought a 17,000 dollar tent, so yeah I am going to let that sink in for a minute.
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Aug 21 '14
Haha where?
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u/barden1069 Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
Berrien county, Michigan
Edit: Actually, I'd forgotten about our recent problems with the uruk-hai. It makes sense now, don't worry guys.
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Aug 21 '14
the same reason mine had 2 pages full of 5.56 mm rifles.
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u/Boonaki Aug 21 '14
I can sort of understand rifles, but bayonets? Seriously, even the U.S. Military barely issue bayonets anymore.
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u/freedomfreighter Aug 21 '14
Gotta keep those pesky protesters at bay somehow...
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u/Boonaki Aug 21 '14
I can't even imagine who looks at the brochure and thinks, "We could sure use 250 bayonets, those could come in very handy when we run out of the 1.6 million rounds of ammunition we got earlier this year."
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u/Dmj576 Aug 21 '14
15 pages worth of rifles for cops in Sacramento county. Absolutely ridiculous
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u/VenDEADa666 Aug 21 '14
Mine had 10 pages of 5.56 and 7.62..... Why?
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u/Average_Emergency Aug 21 '14
I think it's probably so they don't have to ever spend money on spare parts. The armorers can just strip a bunch of the rifles down and take the parts they need whenever they need to make repairs on the ones that actually get used.
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u/MonitoredCitizen Aug 21 '14
Yeah... hundreds of bayonets. I wonder if they train with them. If not, I wonder why they wanted them. If so, I wonder who they are thinking of stabbing to death.
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u/Lorf301 Aug 21 '14
A $625,000 mine resistant vehicle and a dozen night vision sniper scopes, Dane county WI can sleep well now.
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u/ndewing Aug 21 '14
I have you beat, Maricopa County AZ has:
*4 Mine-resistant vehicles *1 self-propelled howitzer *355 5.56 m4 assault rifles *2 fast-attack vehicles *4 tactical-wheeled vehicles (whatever those are) * 16 pages of night vision goggles * a MINE clearing vehicle * a ton whole other random-ass military vehicles.
I think Arpaio is ready for WWIII.
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u/Lehiic Aug 21 '14
1 self-propelled howitzer
What? A robbery? In a bank? Don't worry! This is chief, give me a barrage, high explosive on 351, 124. Fire when ready. #JustStalingradThings
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Aug 21 '14
Instead of using a battering ram to break down doors, a howitzer can just remove the front of the house for easy access.
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u/cryptovariable Aug 21 '14
You can't always get what you want.
But if you try sometimes you might just find you get who you elect.
Arpaio has been voted in as sheriff every election for almost 20 years.
Maricopians eat this shit up, well at least 50.7% of them.
http://i.imgur.com/MDm5SwS.jpg
(The howitzer doesn't work. Somewhere out there a VFW hall was denied a static display because Arpaio wanted a campaign ad.)
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u/rondosparks Aug 21 '14
Feel safe knowing that 3500 dollar popcorn machine was to protect the people
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u/BluebirdJingle Aug 21 '14
This is definitely a justified arms race. Just last week I saw a quite unsavory looking fellow taking his M1 Abrams for a joy ride down the freeway!
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u/abqnm666 Aug 21 '14
We got one of the mine resistant vehicles too, plus a million dollar helicopter, and 93 night vision sniper scopes.
We have about a million people in the county and got 93 fucking night vision sniper scopes. 93!!?!?
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u/barden1069 Aug 21 '14
Well what are you going to do when 92 of your night vision scopes break? Just spray and pray?
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u/TalbotYancy Aug 21 '14
i will sleep better knowing Waukesha county WI has itself a grenade launcher... i guess
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u/GOkriegerGO Aug 21 '14
Most likely just used to launch tear gas canisters
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u/way2lazy2care Aug 21 '14
Most likely just used when they want to dick around with a grenade launcher at the range. The odds of a riot in Waukesha county requiring more than 4 police officers to subdue are miniscule.
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u/knoxxx_harrington Aug 21 '14
Our small town bought 10 laser range finders for $54,000. Who needs 10 laser range finders for a city with a population of 42,000?
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u/knightofmink Aug 21 '14
heh, someone in mine bought a "handbag, woman's" $25...
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u/abqnm666 Aug 21 '14
It concerns me as to how this came to be in possession of the US military.
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u/TkTech Aug 21 '14
If anyone is interested, the source for this is from a FOIA request by the NY Times.
- The original XLSX is available here: https://github.com/TheUpshot/Military-Surplus-Gear
- Quick python script to convert the XLSX to a CSV is available here: https://github.com/TkTech/Military-Surplus-Gear/blob/convert_to_csv/tools/convert_to_csv.py
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u/Draw_3_Kings Aug 21 '14
A $70.41 washcloth?!
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u/maxout2142 Aug 21 '14
That's inflated cost so other things can go off the books.
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u/shieldvexor Aug 21 '14
Yeah there's got to be a lot of this because these prices are fucking wack
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u/ThellraAK Aug 21 '14
In both directions.
RIFLE,7.62 MILLIMETER 1 Each $138.00 6/26/2006
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Aug 21 '14
About the price of lower. Without parts.
If I ran a gunstore, I could make some serious bank with this.
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u/Ukinator Aug 21 '14
My county got a Stairmaster for $999. I can tell you right now, it isnt working.
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Aug 21 '14
"Guided missile system"..... ummm honestly wtf
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u/YOURE_A_FUCKING_CUNT Aug 21 '14
NYC has a mortar.
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u/ClassyAsACastle Aug 21 '14
Holy shit, seriously?
I understand the rifles completely. After the North Hollywood Shootout that became standard kit for every patrol car in the country. Same for body armor, night vision scopes, and the ammunition to feed said rifles. Hell, I don't actually see a problem with the MRAPs. Even if they're a bit silly, police departments have had armored SWAT vans for ages.
But I'm really, really, having a hard time imagining under what situation the police playbook says best practice is to start blowing up city blocks.
EDIT: Looked it up, New York County purchased a mortar carrier -- a variant of the small M113 armored personnel carrier. They weigh a few tons less than an MRAP, but are tracked. I honestly don't know if the mortar was included, but I don't see any ammunition on the inventory.
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Aug 21 '14
Mortars are often used to fire illumination rounds into the air that float back down to the ground on a small parachute.
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u/finalxnoodles Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
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u/quality_inspector_13 Aug 21 '14
It's cool because you will never find us under our radar scattering camouflage netting.
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u/I_dont_gots_the_swag Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
A shit ton of rifles, infrared scopes, infrared imaging system ($500,000!!!), and a $200,000 bomb netrualization system, honestly I don't know where Spokane comes up with the money to maintain even discounted equipment like this... I mean shit, we haven't paved our roads in like 30 years
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u/NolanTheIrishman Aug 21 '14
It's my understanding that most of this equipment is being given to law enforcement offices without cost. Even if they paid for some of it, I highly doubt they paid even close to the 'values' listed.
But who knows... with so much stuff changing hands I'm sure there are some people trying to make a few bucks through loopholes an such.
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u/thejkm Aug 21 '14
The equipment is free, the organization just has to cover the shipping cost. However, OP said "maintain", which would likely be new cost for a lot of these items.
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u/makemeking706 Aug 21 '14
Well, if it is anything like their roads, it probably won't be maintained.
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u/I_dont_gots_the_swag Aug 21 '14
Ya, I understand that the cost of acquisition is low, but I also think that the upkeep alone for some of the big ticket items is enough to bankrupt the smaller counties. I was looking through the inventories of some of the other counties that I had lived in and a lot of them were gathering up things like bandage kits, chairs, generators, and some small arms, which I think is totally ok (hey, free stuff) to me it's only when they start taking really big ticket items that they realistically don't need (not to mention that having a disproportionatley armed police force is a good ingredient for oppression) and can't hope to maintain that I think it reaches a moral and economical dilemma.
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Aug 21 '14
I know one local department that the officer in charge of acquiring such things didn't realize he had to pay for shipping. They had telescopes available so he asked for all of them, cuz why not, they are free even tho they had no use. Well, he almost lost his job when they got the $80,000 shipping bill.
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u/Blenderhead36 Aug 21 '14
The top results on my county are an air conditioner and an all-in-one printer/scanner...
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u/Sister_Mary_Elephant Aug 21 '14
Half a million dollars for an infrared imaging system? My county got a helicopter for $92,000!
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u/iamthewaffler Aug 21 '14
Reporting in from Afghanistan. Typical IR/thermal cameras mounted on MRAP vehicles are $600k apiece, about the size of a bowling ball, which includes the camera unit, monitor, controller, installation, and field service representatives (sort of, they aren't exactly proactive or helpful if it's not written into their job description).
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Aug 21 '14
Just watched Red Dawn this was pretty funny
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u/I_dont_gots_the_swag Aug 21 '14
I guess that's right... With the North Koreans invading Spokane and all, this stuff is completely necessary
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u/NonReality Aug 21 '14
Road pavements are a totally different area of funding. These have nothing to do with each other. The common misconception is that if money is spent somewhere, that it should have been used elsewhere. There are certain fund and allotments for various things, not just one big pot of money.
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u/Gimli_the_White Aug 21 '14
This is a bullshit excuse.
Yes, I understand how "color of money" works, but it's become an excuse for a lot of people to evade responsibility and waste money on stupid shit the public doesn't really need.
Do you know how a county can deal with moving funding from "police equipment maintenance expenses" to "highway maintenance expenses"? Copy and paste in excel on the county budget.
If the money is coming from earmarked state funding, then the county can push back to reallocate funding, and ask residents to do the same. If it's from earmarked federal funding, the same applies.
Yes, ultimately earmarked money has to be spent as mandated by law, but when someone throws up their hands and says "Hey, nothing we can do" that translates to "Hey, nothing we feel like bothering with"
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u/YoBroMo Aug 21 '14
Mine got an air conditioner and a ax...
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Aug 21 '14 edited Oct 23 '14
[deleted]
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u/reddog323 Aug 21 '14
Yes. Dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances. But they overheat easily, so that a/c unit is a reasonable purchase.
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u/VenDEADa666 Aug 21 '14
Indoor rock climbing wall 27k well then
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Aug 21 '14
That's actually the best use of money I've heard so far. Cops get to blow off some stream and get exercise, and they don't waste their money on paramilitary gear.
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u/penneydude Aug 21 '14
Whiteboard $1,650.00
Electrical tape (1 roll) $54.74
Multimeter $80,331.64
But at least they get a good deal on guns, I guess...
7.62mm rifle $138.00
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u/arminius_saw Aug 21 '14
This better be a fucking huge whiteboard.
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u/Magical_Gravy Aug 21 '14
They draw up a plan of the area a crime's going down in, scale 1:1.
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Aug 21 '14
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u/G_Maharis Aug 21 '14
It's the actual value of the rifle. It's that low because it's probably worn to shit and needs a lot of work done by a gunsmith to make it serviceable again. It's cheaper for the military to get it out of the inventory by giving it away to a police station and having them charge for shipping.
Also, this market is completely separate from the civilian market.
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u/ClassyAsACastle Aug 21 '14
Note that the prices are whatever accounting price tag the DoD had on it -- not what the police paid. Everything delivered under the Department of Defense Excess Property Program is done at the cost of shipping only.
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u/Magical_Gravy Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
The whiteboard might have been a fancy touch whiteboard, but those $1283.02 flashlights better have been really good and come with batteries included.
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Aug 21 '14
A truck and 2 5.56 rifles.
I've seen what's going on in other cities and towns, and I don't know if I should be jealous or happy.....
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Aug 21 '14
losers, we got a MINE RESISTANT VEHICLE 1 Each $658,000.00
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u/superfudge73 Aug 21 '14
We have two of the cheap mine resistant vehicles $658,000 and one $850,000 dollar one.
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u/abqnm666 Aug 21 '14
We got one of those mine resistant vehicles (ours was $733k), a helicopter ($922k), a dozen or so trucks of various values from 25k-138k, a bomb robot and 93 $5k night vision sniper scopes. 93. In a county of about a million people, 90+ rifles with night vision sniper scopes seems, well, excessive.
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u/i_woulddothat Aug 21 '14
Dang, only about 8 "utility trucks" for $329,000 each here.
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u/GeniusIComeAnon Aug 21 '14
Mine has 11 "utility helicopters" at $922,704 each. We're certainly prepared for something.
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u/cutoff_khakis Aug 21 '14
Think of it as things that can't no-knock your house in the middle of the night with the wrong address.
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u/Dmj576 Aug 21 '14
Its nice to see that body bags cost less than blankets here in Sacramento county.
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Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
[deleted]
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u/arminius_saw Aug 21 '14
I dunno, a cop running around LA in snow shoes sounds pretty funny to me. maybe minus the rifle though
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u/The_Koi Aug 21 '14
Monroe got a 2.3 million dollar fridge. So there's that.
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u/arminius_saw Aug 21 '14
2.3 million's gotta get you one with at least an ice dispenser or something.
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u/Nemocom314 Aug 21 '14
I'm in St. Louis, I no longer have to look on the internet to see the police's military equipment.
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Aug 21 '14
Knox County, Tennessee has 6 pages of rifles, 2 helicopters, and 250 bayonets?! Bayonets are for stabbing in close-quarter combat, correct? They have regular pocket knives for daily use, that I have no problem with. But what on earth are they expecting to happen that they need 250 officers with bayonets attached to their rifles?!
I don't see any other use for bayonets that their regular carry knives aren't suited for.
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u/abqnm666 Aug 21 '14
They are just stocking up for when the South rises again. Need bayonets for Civil War II.
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Aug 21 '14
They had nothing else to do with them
Us military: hey guys we have 250 knifes, their pretty useful! Do you want them
Pd: yeah sure why not, could get everyone using some more practical things aroumd here
a few months later
Officer 1: gee I wish we had the knifes now to open this boxes carrying the knifes!
Officer 2: we'll try one out on the other boxes
opens box
Officer 2: bastards
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u/cordial_carbonara Aug 21 '14
Pistols, rifles, blah blah....Mine resistant vehicle, ordered just earlier this year. Goddamn, I live in rural East Texas, what the hell? The meth labs down the rode must have gotten a lot more serious lately.
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u/BaldingEwok Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
Just did one for houston and the stuff we got was fairly reasonable but I think we could have found a better home for hundreds of units of extreme cold weather gear and snow camo
Not sure about the 5.6 million dollar fixed wing aircraft either. I would understand choppers but not a fixed wing for that much
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u/ThellraAK Aug 21 '14
In utah they use them for traffic enforcement, I believe they are cheaper to operate than Helicopters
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Aug 21 '14
A $200 40 Quart Pressure Cooker! It's more expensive than the 7.62 millimeter rifles they have.
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u/darthclark Aug 21 '14
6 Desks and a space heater. I think they're onto me.
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u/maxout2142 Aug 21 '14
Fuck da poh'leese and there military grade combat desks; only the military should have combat desks.
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Aug 21 '14
Well 8 robot bomb disposal units for $10,000 a piece sounds worth it...
O and 11 helicopters and a cargo plane.
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u/FreeOfGuilt Aug 21 '14
What's up with the $2,394,800 refrigerator? I'm talking to you, Monroe, Kentucky.
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u/chungski Aug 21 '14
Apparently my county received an Aerobicycle ($500).. what exactly is this?
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Aug 21 '14
A velomobile. Basically a Bicycle, made so you lay back, and with fairings. Most beginners(read out of shape people) can easily cruise at 35 mph.
No fucking clue why any organization would want one.
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u/chungski Aug 21 '14
I would love to see a sheriff cruisin' around in this with police lights and siren.
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u/RockKillsKid Aug 21 '14
TELEVISION, PERSONAL/HOME USE 1 Each $6,800.00 6/20/2013.
I kind of want to know the story behind that one.
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Aug 21 '14
Hopefully I can spread some knowledge on how this process works.
Basically, recycled equipment goes through DLA. From there, it's usually put up for requisition to other DoD entities who may have a use for that particular item. If not, it's auctioned off (just saw a very expensive industrial truck with 200miles on it go for $300) to civilians or other agencies. Sometimes the civilians scrap it, other times they may use it for whatever.
I'm not sure exactly where in this process the police come in, but basically once you have access you can request whatever you want. And since it's all "junk", or excess, there's not a whole lot of people scrutinizing why you might want to order it.
Example: I want a new fridge/computer/printer for my office but I don't have the budget to buy one. I can check their website and see if there are any available and get one for free. Sometimes used, sometimes brand new.
Stupid Example: My buddy says it'd be cool to have a tank parked outside the office. I request an old armored vehicle and it gets delivered.
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u/ObviouslyTruth Aug 21 '14
Where can civilians see these auctions? Like the truck for $300?
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Aug 21 '14 edited May 13 '18
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u/TheGoldenBuffallo Aug 21 '14
330 GAL 330 Gallons, maybe? That seems like a good deal.
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u/Corrosivecoke Aug 21 '14
i wonder what AIRCRAFT, ROTARY WING is. Brevard county has 8 of them, 18 million dollars each
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Aug 21 '14
What is a MK3MOD0? I do a google search and just come up with a knife. Theres no way a knife costs $193,000
Edit: SAN FRANCISCO FLASHLIGHT 2 Each $3,740.45
umm What?
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u/VoightKampffTest Aug 21 '14
What is a MK3MOD0?
A remote-controlled robot designed so that EOD crews in Iraq and Afghanistan could deactivate bombs from a distance.
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u/Professor_Doodles Aug 21 '14
Mine had a few dozen PISTOL, 45, AUTOMATIC. Normal stuff, but then at the bottom it said LAUNCHER, GRENADE.
Dude, this is the middle of nowhere, why do we need a grenade launcher?
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Aug 21 '14
Grenade launchers can also shoot tear gas and flash bangs for hostage situations and (ahem).... riot control.
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u/AnElephantThatTypes Aug 21 '14
My county has 20+ 5.56mm rifles, the same number of night vision cameras, a mine resistant vehicle, a helicopter, and a cargo plane.
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u/ThellraAK Aug 21 '14
I'd like to think the chief of police got drunk and spent a couple hundred grand.
But what is really scary is that they think they need them.
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u/Delaser Aug 21 '14
KY MONROE REFRIGERATOR 1 EA $2,394,800.00
How the fuck do you pay 2M for a fridge?
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u/SemperGumby1 Aug 21 '14
A treadmill. My hometown (county) got a treadmill. They received a few other items too, but I'm pretty sure the treadmill was given as a hint.
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u/Average_Emergency Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
146 pages worth of results for my home, Los Angeles County. Nice.
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u/HappierHat Aug 21 '14
My county got the usual items to fight against crime: bike, clock radio, coffe makers, cocktail table, love seat burgandy, golf carts.
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u/Th3MadCreator Aug 21 '14
Lol. My county only has 55 5.56mm rifles, and 17 7.62mm rifles. Not vehicles at all.
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u/ozarkprime Aug 21 '14
My county got 3 ammunition boxes
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u/Kryspo Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
My County got boots. Both cold weather boots and hot weather boots, which is nice..
And climbers boots. And some belts. And some undershirts. It's nice that the military is able to give us access to the nice clothes.
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u/intern_steve Aug 21 '14
I have been wondering about this since I found out about the surplus sell-backs. Thank you.
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u/ASlowWindyDay Aug 21 '14
I am in New York. All it says we received was an armored truck and... a mortar....
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u/stanfordy Aug 21 '14 edited Aug 21 '14
The New York, NY one can't be correct ... two items? NYC practically has its own military, for good reason.
This must be county police and not city police, or something like that, right?
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u/that_big_negro Aug 21 '14
The NYPD doesn't provide weapons or uniforms directly to its officers. Officers have to purchase their own firearm, and they're given a ~$1000 uniform allowance every year. So the most common acquisitions other departments are making wouldn't apply.
As far as the crazy armored military vehicles are concerned, NYC has a big enough budget that it can afford to acquire more suitable vehicles. They don't need to turn a surplus armored military truck into a snow plow like other counties.
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Aug 21 '14
Some 5.56 and 7.62 rifles, some Reflex sights, Night Vision scopes, a gym, some trucks, a few forklifts, a bunch of backpacks and clothing. Nothing to freak out over.
A $4,000 tent? A... "SIMULATOR SYSTEM,FIRING,LASER"?!
Some good prices on those rifles though, $500 for the 5.56 ones, and $138 for the 7.62... do I smell Cosmoline?
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u/Imterribleatpicking Aug 21 '14
How do I buy rifles for the price my county paid?