Posted on 09/23/2014 6:08:20 PM PDT by george76
A rescue armored vehicle arrived at the Bozeman Police Department in May, but city commissioners said they didn't know about it until this week.
City Commissioner Chris Mehl was driving on a ride-along Friday night, when he was at the police station and saw a 14-foot-8, 17,000-pound rescue armored vehicle.
"I was surprised, you can imagine. Surprised," said Mehl.
The Bozeman Police Department purchased the armored vehicle, also known as the Bearcat, in May for a little more than $250,000 through a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Mehl said normally the city commission looks at any large expense, but in this case they didn't see the grant.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcmontana.com ...
Nobody noticed the $250,000 for a vehicle.
So, when did the Police Department plan on informing the city council?
It’s time for the police chief and the entire city council to be replaced.
Sheldon Cooper would be upset with his fellow Bozites over this matter.
Looks like someone’s getting ready for a war.
It's damn right criminal that immature pea-brained idiots like this are allowed to be in law enforcement. "Chief" no less.
that grant money just federalized the bozeman police dept.
i don’t think a police chief can make that decision. elected council officials would have to.
The feral government is just staging it there until they get the signal from Ubama to start the pogrom. Then they’ll come and pick it up.
Brilliant. Just paint RESCUE on an armored combat vehicle, and that launders its military origin and purpose. Because we non-cops are overly sensitive and kind of stupid.
They should also paint RESCUE on all the grenade launchers and tanks, etc. that the DMV clerks with badges, aka cops, are arming themselves with across the nation. That way we suckers will never notice that we’re being policed by a standing domestic army.
“Rescue” vehicle.
Wow, that is sickeningly legalistic, bureaucratic and cynical.
What a joke.
Boze-Angeles is surprised? Used to be a rugged cow town, albeit, a rugged, college, cow town.
Do it and apologize later...
One guy says he’s sorry for not telling the council and another feigns “I dunno what happened in the communication”.
I’ll tell you what happened:
“You made an unauthorized purchase and your ass is writing checks you can’t cash”.
That’s what happened.
You guys wanted a new toy and subverted process to get it.
did you also forget to put the TCO in your budget?
Maybe the council will teach you a lesson on “how to communicate” and they will demand you return it and defund it.
you have no right to make such an expenditure without prior consent of the representative of the people who pay your salary.
You made clear you dont trust the citizens to make decisions and you committed what is called fraud in the private sector but, you know you have sovereign immunity and you just want to see what you can get away with, at the expense of someone else.
you did not write the check for that purchase.
the local taxpayer did and $250k plus TCO is a lot of money.
I think both of you are liars and should be fired.
Remember that $250,000 thrown away next time they go before the voters to approve more taxes for starving police departments. No more funding for police, no more abusive purchases.
Somebody has to save the wolves. I’ll bet they can fit three, four good sized wolves in the back of that thing. They could feed em ham sammiches and maybe a hot cup a coffee.
I wonder how many of the secondary, in residential areas, roads are stressed for a 17,000 pound (empty) vehicle that runs on only four tires?
I wonder what it’s off road performance is going to be during the fall freeze cycles and spring thaws?
If the vehicle has already been used once to respond to a situation why was the city commissioner surprised when he saw it at the police station?
IMHO - the police chief needs to fired - yesterday. A quarter of a million dollar “investment” that the city council (his immediate bosses) didn’t know anything about! Wonder what else they don’t know about? Then a complete audit of the paperwork surrounding this purchase needs to follow. Anyone who touched that paperwork needs to placed on non-paying administrative leave for 30 days. This entire incident represents the worse attributes of city government and should never be tolerated!
But, but it was free money! It was a gift from obammy himself! No need to run it past the city and the pesky taxpayers. No need to question why and what it’s to be used for. No, nothing to see. Move along.
Isn’t there a city manager and other people in charge of this stuff?
Maybe back in the old days when governments were governed by rules and stuff
Um...what, exactly, is it that the officers of Bozeman used to do that is better accomplished with an armored vehicle?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.