Vehicle will be useful driving through snow
By Brad Devereaux
The Saginaw News
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The Buena Vista Township Police Department has a new tool that will allow officers to go almost anywhere during police operations.
The department last month put into service a custom High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (Humvee) for use as a patrol vehicle and for special assignments.
The Humvee has four-wheel drive and space to carry one arrested suspect inside a caged rear seat. It will be useful for driving through heavy and snow during the winter, Detective Sgt. Sean Waterman said.
He noted a past occasion when the department’s vehicles had a hard time getting out of the ice and snow covered parking lot as a traffic crash call was paged.
“This will get us there,” he told The Saginaw News.
Officer Jason Hendricks spearheaded acquiring the vehicle through the military’s 1033 surplus program, which allows public safety agencies to acquire the vehicles at no cost.
Buena Vista received the vehicle in November along with two other Humvees still yet to be customized for service. Waterman said the Buena Vista Fire Department is going to use one of the vehicles.
Hendricks obtained donations from 25 area businesses to customize the Hummer for civilian police work at no cost to the township, according to the police department.
The Saginaw County Sheriff’s Department also participated in the military’s excess 1033 program and received a similar vehicle, outfitted as an ambulance, in September.
The sheriff’s department Humvee was customized through donations from the business community, Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel said. The Hummer ambulance accompanies the Saginaw County Emergency Services team during any activation, Federspiel said in a statement.
“This unit is unique because their entire mission is to protect the members of our Emergency Services team, which is our SWAT team,” Federspiel said. “Any time the SWAT team is called out, we know that’s going to be a potentially violent and dangerous situation.”
The sheriff’s department Humvee will stand by with the goal of providing immediate care on the front lines, according to the sheriff’s office. Two to four members of the 13-member volunteer TEMS team will be on call at all times, the sheriff’s department said, to be activated with the rig if needed.
The ambulance will be state inspected and carries oxygen, AED, and “everything that an ambulance carries,” the sheriff said.
The vehicle could be used for search and rescue missions and in other special cases, according to the department.
