The new handcuffs were there, free for the taking.

Stacey Mahan has never been shy. He put dibs on 24 pairs. Nice, but nothing like the coup from last summer.

He got a dump truck. A camper. A pickup truck. Three golf carts.

“We spent $1,000 and got $60,000 in equipment — that’s a nice return,” said the Limestone police chief.

For years Mahan has tapped into a military surplus program used by thousands of police departments across the country, run by the U.S. Defense Reutilization & Marketing Service, checking sometimes daily to see what the military has put out to pasture.

Records supplied by the contact person for Maine show that between October 1994 and June 2009, departments here received $6 million-plus worth of weapons and gear, even office supplies, from 10-cent paper clips in Presque Isle to $405,000 armored carriers in Portland.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office got a mine-detecting set. Rumford police, 16 ground troop helmets. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, a dozen automatic weapons, scabbards and bayonets.

And the Maine Warden Service, a 1968 Cessna that will take to the air this fall, the first warden plane in the state to boast a thermal imaging search-and-rescue camera.

All of it free, save for shipping.

In 2007, the DRMS passed along goods and gear originally valued at $57 million, according to its spokesman. Many Maine departments say that if it wasn’t for that help, for better or worse, police here would often have gone without.

“Sept. 11 reinforced (the possibility) that you might be out-gunned,” said Franklin County Sheriff Dennis Pike, who got weapons for his tactical team, a boat and a hand-me-down Dodge pickup and Chevy Blazer.

“Some of them would have been out of reach, being a frugal county budget administrator.”

‘You never need it until you need it’

DRMS’s law enforcement support office, in its current incarnation, has been around since 1999, spokesman Ken MacNevin said. Some 17,000 police agencies have used it for gear or weapons. Officials can visit the DRMS’s for-their-eyes-only Web site as often as they like to see what’s available. It works like a nationwide system of police calling dibs. Departments find out days or weeks later whether the item is theirs.

“It’s like a big yard sale. You never know what you’re going to get to until you get there,” said Scarborough Officer Joe Giacomantonio.

He’s been the point of contact for Maine for four or five years, taking the work over from the Maine National Guard when it stopped and the program in-state was at risk of going away. His department had benefited enough in the past that it was worth his time.

“Good stuff goes quickly,” he said.

Even free, of course, can have strings.

Before putting in an order, departments have to weigh the risk of damage or cost of repair. They’ve got to weigh the cost of shipping against an item’s value (Pennsylvania is the closest shipping hub.) And they’ve got to weigh the cost of disposal: scrapping it, giving it to someone else or shipping it back to the military.

In 1996, Portland received two small armored vehicles, Peacekeepers, through the program. One was salvaged clean for parts, Giacomantonio said, then picked up by the military on its dime, shipped to Florida and used for target practice.

“It worked out for the benefit of everyone,” he said.

He considers himself lucky to have grabbed a pair of Humvees this summer for the Scarborough, South Portland and Cape Elizabeth regional response team.

The biggest-ticket items to come to Maine over 15 years: a pair of 27-foot boats to Wells valued at $210,000 each and a pair of armored personnel carriers to Portland valued at $405,815 each.

“People oversimplify (the latter) as a tank. There’s no offensive weaponry on it, it’s all protection. It’s just one of those things, you never need it until you need it,” Giacomantonio said.

Someday, it could be useful in an armed standoff to protect victims and police, he said. “When someone wants that and needs that, it’s going to be worth its weight in gold.”

Lamps, guns

Giacomantonio’s records show 96 departments and state agencies here have received items valued at $6.3 million since 1994, but the figure could be higher. He said changing hands and changing computer systems over the years have led to some gaps in the records.

The lengthy list of surplus known to have come to Maine ranges from the lethal to the most benign.

In 1996 Maine State Police asked for 10 lamps, 15 rugs and a dozen bed frames to set up a makeshift K-9 training dorm. That setup’s gone by the wayside. The only surplus still at the Criminal Justice Academy: old cars used to hide drugs and explosives to be sniffed out by dogs in training.

“You’re not afraid to scratch the paint on surplus military ambulances,” said Lt. Bill Snedeker, commander of special services. “The dogs, I believe are colorblind. We make them think it’s like a silver Mercedes, but it’s actually an old, dumpy green military car.”

Presque Isle Police Chief Naldo Gagnon doesn’t remember requesting 10-cent paper clips — he thinks they might have come in a box of office supplies. He recently received four urban rifles that, new, would have cost $700 apiece.

“Thank God we’ve never had to use one,” Gagnon said.

Maine departments received 274 weapons over that 15-year span. Requests are capped by agency size. Of 49 departments to ask, Rangeley and Madawaska police each got a single weapon, Westbrook the most at 47.

“There’s a lot of good stuff out there,” said Rumford police chief Stacy Carter. Over the years, his department’s gotten four surplus weapons, cold weather sleeping bags, night vision sights, magazine cartridges and a used Chevy pickup.

But, like Snedeker and Lewiston Police Chief Michael Bussiere, Carter’s gotten Homeland Security money since 2002 to replace surplus or buy new. All three departments don’t appear to have used the surplus program for four years or more.

“We try to get our officers the best equipment, the newest equipment,” said Bussiere.

Some technology, like infrared goggles, is out of date by the time the military turns it over, he said. One Lewiston catch, a boat for river rescues, became obsolete after Auburn added one to its force.

Records show Auburn police only received one item, a $32,990 vehicle.

Surplus “helped us tremendously” 10 years ago, Snedeker said, but times have changed.

“We’re able to (buy) state-of-the-art, up-to-date, commercially rated stuff,” said Snedeker. “The problem we were having, (for instance, with hundreds of surplus) gas masks, while usable, they were all Desert Storm I surplus, so they were in varying states of wear. Even the filters we got, those filters come with a shelf life.”

The program can work better for smaller PDs with lower crime rates and less access to federal funds, Giacomantonio said.

‘It wouldn’t have happened’

The program does have some drawbacks.

Ten years ago, police could visit military bases in Brunswick, Loring, Portsmouth and elsewhere to see these same sorts of goods in person. Gear is often used, and sometimes, about used up. Several departments said having to order sight-unseen has prompted them to use the DRMS less.

Last winter, Game Warden Chris Dyer asked for 40 gun reflex sights anticipating some would be broken. He was right. Four were. He split the red-dot rifle and shotgun scopes with the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office and Belfast police.

Despite the wear-and-tear, Chief Pilot Charlie Later said it was worth the $45,000 yearlong engine overhaul on the new-to-him 1968 Cessna 172, the Warden Service’s newest plane. Homeland Security money paid for a new infrared thermal camera to be mounted inside, making it easier to find lost people in the dark.

“A new 172 is, oh my God, over $250,000,” Later said. “It wouldn’t have happened. There’s no way this would have happened.”

More departments could stand to take part in the program, Giacomantonio said. He realizes it’s a matter of time.

“Not everyone has the availability to sit at a computer and research this. I know Limestone, all their guys, they watch it quite often, even from their home,” he said. “Like anything else, you get in what you put into it.”

Up in Limestone, Mahan gave those new Hiatts hinged handcuffs to his large part-time staff. He converted the 16-foot Navy camper into a command post. A 17-year-old dump truck with 26,000 miles went to the Highway Department.

The Rec Department got the 15-year-old Chevy S10 with only 6,000 miles on it.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Joe Giacomantonio of the Scarborough Police Department is the state point of contact for military surplus equipment. The department has received two Humvees and the truck at right, amongst others.

The Scarborough Police Department has received numerous pieces of military surplus equipment, including this multi-purpose truck.

The Scarborough Police Department has received numerous pieces of military surplus equipment, including this Humvee.

Copy the Story Link