Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis took to Facebook on Friday afternoon to show off some new additions to his department-- including a bulletproof military vehicle.
Earlier this year, the office received a Humvee and a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected or MRAP vehicle through a Federal Government program at no cost.
"A lot of people ask how much they cost," said Major Allen Dailey: " They didn't cost us anything, we just had to go pick them up. All the paint was donated, the labor was donated to have them painted."
Covered in a fresh coat of matte black and Sheriff's Department decals, the new rides are ready to go.Captain Terrance Colclough says the MRAP has already been used in a recent drug raid, but they can be used in many other ways.
"Any type of high-risk situation. A subject may be armed, combative, may be barricaded inside of a household," said Captain Colclough. "This particular vehicle we can actually pull up to someone's front door while taking on fire and wouldn't have any problem at all."
"Searching for lost people in the woods, when we have inclement weather, hurricanes, tornadoes and stuff," said Major Dailey. "We can use these on and off road."
Employees are now going through training on how to drive and utilize the new equipment, but officials hope they won't have to put them to too much use.
"We don't look forward to using these types of vehicles, but it's better for us to have something like that when we definitely need it than not to have it," said Captain Colclough.
The program that made the equipment available is consistently updated and Captain Colclough says they search it weekly for more things they can utilize.
