SLED Defends Spending on SUVs and Guns Despite Budget Cuts

The State Law Enforcement Division is defending its recent spending of more than $600,000 on new vehicles and weapons, despite state budget cuts that forced the agency to lay off more than 100 people.

SLED bought ten new Chevy Tahoe SUVs, which cost about $30,000 each. SLED director Reggie Lloyd drives one, while the other nine are assigned to top commanders.

Capt. Paul Grant, who’s the captain over the Midlands region, says the full-size SUVs give commanders the ability to respond faster and better. The Tahoes carry a canopy tent, table, chairs, communications equipment and computers. Having them means SLED doesn’t have to send out its Mobile Command Center, which is a large RV.

“The four regional captains have one (SUV), which gives your response time quicker rather than having to bring the Mobile Command Post, the big command post, out of Columbia to get to a scene. There’s a cost of moving that,“ Capt. Grant says. He says the Tahoes are used as command posts for manhunts, SWAT calls and large busts that require lots of paperwork and logging evidence.

Two of the SUVs were actually ordered under former director Robert Stewart, while the other eight were bought before recent state budget cuts, SLED spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said.

SLED typically uses Crown Victorias for vehicles, which cost about $21,000 each. Grant says a Crown Vic can’t carry all of the equipment that the Tahoe can, and the Tahoe will last about five years longer.

SLED also bought 125 H & K rifles, at a cost of almost $250,000, and 50 Bushmaster rifles, which cost about $59,000. SLED training Capt. Jim McClary says the purchase order for those was put through before state budget cuts, and replacing SLED’s previous rifles had been in the planning stages for ten years. The new weapons are safer, more reliable and should last about four times longer, he says.

He says having a standardized weapon could also save lives. During a shootout in Abbeville in December 2003, agents had several different weapons that used different types of ammunition. “We had to send an agent in harm’s way to deliver ammunition to the agents that didn’t have enough ammunition, and they couldn’t interchange ammunition at different times because they were carrying different weapons,“ McClary says.

But budget cuts have left SLED without as much ammunition as it would like for its new guns. The purchase order had been made, but there was a mix-up in the way the bids were handled, McClary says. By the time the order was re-bid, the agency’s budget had been cut.

“We don’t have the ammunition we would like to have because of that mix-up in the purchases, but we’ve got enough to fulfill the need that we have,“ McClary says.