Armored truck gives sheriff 'peace' about deputy safety

Peace may seem like a strange word to use in regards to acquiring an armored vehicle, but Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said he feels like he has it.

Tuesday, Bailey recounted a few situations in which people had threatened to kill his deputies for doing their job. In those situations, deputies were pulling up on scenes in a repurposed 1987 bank truck that Bailey said he doesn't think would stop a shot from a typical hunting rifle.

"I feel confident now that they’re safe. They can sit in this vehicle and the guy can’t do a thing to them, but we can talk and try to communicate with him," he said. "It’s a peace that I have, having this vehicle."

For the last two years, Bailey has worked to obtain a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, or MRAP, through the Department of Defense's Law Enforcement Support Office program, which offers military surplus equipment to law enforcement because they've already been paid for by taxpayers.

When the vehicle rolled up with 61 miles on the speedometer, the price tag was still on it: $860,000. But Bailey got it for $10,000, all of which came from drug-seized money. The MRAP came with a spare set of tires, too, which is another $15,000 value.

The protection offered to officers inside the vehicle gives Bailey peace of mind because he doesn't believe there's firepower in Rankin County that his truck won't stop.

Deputy Tyson Burleson, a Marine veteran with two tours in Iraq, said he was familiar with such vehicles from his time in the service.

"They definitely saved lives. Everyone thinks they’re designed for explosives, but it's not only for explosives. It's also to repel enemy attacks, as well as small arms fire, and small arms fire is available to anyone stateside," he said. "Whether it’s 7.62 rounds (fired from an AK-47), 50 caliber, or other average assault rifles, it definitely stops all those rounds. It also stops explosions, but hopefully we’ll never ever see something like that stateside."

There has been some social media backlash to Rankin County's new acquisition, much of which is coming from out of state. Bailey said it won't be used very often, and definitely won't be showing up at protests, roadblocks, or on patrol.

"If we had an active shooter situation where individuals were hurt, we could put this between the gunman and the victims and shield them," he said. "If we have a suicidal suspect, our deputies can drive up to the front door and try to communicate with him, we can negotiate with people that way. It’s basically a big bulletproof vest."

In addition, it can be used to go into a hot zone and remove the injured with much less danger than sending in any other vehicle in the department's fleet at this point, officials said.

But officials say the value in the MRAP is not limited to  its ability to take fire and prevent it from reaching those inside. It's useful in flooding situations, because it can traverse water much deeper than other vehicles without damage to the drivetrain or motor. The vehicle can also still operate through underwater debris. It can go places where vehicles and boats can't.

The MRAP is also an asset after tornadic weather when roads are blocked by trees, power lines, and other debris. When other emergency vehicles must wait for the debris to be cut through or hauled off, the MRAP can just roll over it, Bailey said, cutting valuable minutes or even hours out of the rescue process.

Still, people are concerned.

Why do the police need anything military, they often ask. Bailey points out that every item that comes through the military surplus program can be bought by police outside the program. By buying military surplus, he is saving the county a lot of money, he said. Even questions of maintenance are simple, officials said — the MRAP is built on an International dump truck chassis, and can be serviced by county mechanics.

Plus, Bailey asked, what price do you put on a deputy's life?

In Brookhaven last October, a suspect with a traumatic brain injury began shooting at police, and threatened to kill anyone who came to his door. Authorities used an armored vehicle that belonged to the state to approach the suspect in order to try to negotiate. He opened fire on them, but no one in the vehicle was injured because of the protection.

On a larger scale, in the mass shooting at Pulse, a nightclub in Orlando, police breached a back wall of the building with an armored vehicle in order to get inside to rescue patrons and ultimately to kill the gunman.

And there have been situations in Rankin County that easily could have become deadly. Last year a man's wife had left him, Bailey said, and he drank a fifth of liquor and had taken some drugs and called the sheriff's department to tell them he was suicidal.

"He called us and said he'd kill any deputies that came up there. We couldn't just not go," Bailey said.

"The room he was in was full of rifles, weapons, ammunition, and there was a window overlooking all of us. No, he didn’t pull the trigger on us that time, but we don’t know when, we don’t know where," Bailey said. "Now I have something that we can pull up in that driveway and let him know we’re there and try to communicate with him."

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.