MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Montgomery County Sheriff D.T. Marshall says it was an event that took place 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles about 17 years ago -- not ongoing events in Ferguson, Mo.-- that prompted his department to start acquiring free military-surplus equipment.
Marshall wanted to be prepared for just about anything following the North Hollywood bank shootout in 1997. Two heavily armed and armored bank robbers caused a shootout that injured 11 police officers and seven civilians.
"It is better to have a piece of equipment and not need it then to need it and not have it," he said.
Marshall also hasn't forgotten about excommunicated Nation of Islam members who went on a three-day crime spree in Montgomery in 1974 that ended in a shootout on Dexter Avenue after the group took over WAPX-AM radio station.
Even so, most of the military equipment acquired by the sheriff's office over the years isn't weapons. Military-surplus weapons are typically too old and don't meet the needs of police departments, Montgomery County Chief Deputy Derrick Cunningham said.
Vehicles, tents, furniture, cots, plastic jugs and gun racks are the items most often acquired by the sheriff's office, he said. (See who got the gear in Alabama in the database. Story continues below.)
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Cunningham said military surplus is the best way to purchase all-terrain vehicles to use in the event of natural disasters or snow and ice, which saves his department tens of thousands of dollars.
For at least six years, the Sheriff's Office has had an M113 armored personnel carrier, which looks like a small tank; two military Humvees with no armor. About four years ago, four ATVS were acquired.
Most of these vehicles have been used only in parades and for other public relations purposes, never for police response. One of the Humvees is painted black, has sheriff's office decals and a sound system in the back.
Cunningham said all four ATVS have been used in the past to search wooded areas for a missing person with Alzheimer's disease.
A military Peacekeeper, a large armored vehicle, has also been in the department's fleet for around 20 years. Marshall said it's been used to knock down security bars when performing drug raids.
The sheriff's office has several military surplus M16's and 10 .45 pistols, but all of them are in storage and never used.
Cunningham said he is hoping to return the weapons to the military.
Militarization of police
In the wake of the ongoing riots in Ferguson, Mo., many think police departments are becoming militarized through obtaining military surplus or military-style equipment and weapons.
Cunningham doesn't think so.
"This is police departments getting the equipment they probably need," he said, adding that sheriff's offices and small police departments often don't have the funds to buy their own equipment.
But, they have to be prepared for just about anything.
Montgomery Department of Public Safety Director Chris Murphy said law enforcement has changed in the last several decades.
He said the crimes have changed and the criminals have technical equipment, sometimes more advanced than law enforcement.
Murphy said Montgomery Police Department does what it needs to do to ensure city residents are safe and to ensure that officers go home at night.
"We want (officers) to have the necessary equipment, but force has to evaluated based on the intelligence and evidence that is there," he said.
Montgomery police wouldn't release specifics on its armory, but said it doesn't have any military-surplus weapons in service.
"The department has a limited number of automatic weapons that are used by SWAT in high-risk situations," Montgomery Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Martha Earnhardt said, 'but they are not standard issue and they are not used routinely."
These weapons are kept under lock and key and only used in high-risk situations, she said.
Montgomery police has a civilian-type armored car that is used to move personnel or victims from high-risk situations such as a domestic violence situation last year where a husband was accused of killing his wife.
Police didn't know if the suspect was still alive, but they had to get out a child left inside the house.
Both the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and Montgomery Police Department have tactical teams fully equipped to handle hostage situations, high-risk warrants and other more dangerous incidents, Earnhardt and Cunningham said.
These teams have equipment, bought by the department, which could be considered military-style.
Cunningham said this equipment includes raid shields, rubber bullets, infrared scopes, door rams, C-4 explosives and sniper rifles.
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