Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser, sits Thursday with the armored personnel carrier. (courtesy jamestownsun.com)

“Stutsman County was created by the 1872-73 territorial legislature and named for Enos Stutsman, who was born with Phocomelia (lacking arms or legs), but who nonetheless not only homesteaded, but became a powerful politician in the early days of the Dakota Territory. The county government was first organized on June 20, 1873,” Wikipedia reveals. “As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,100.” And now, one MRAP. “The newest vehicle in the fleet of the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office is a low-mileage armored personnel carrier . . .

The 15-ton armor plated International MaxxPro MRAP [Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected] can carry officers for a variety of rescue and law enforcement missions, according to Chad Kaiser, Stutsman County sheriff . . . “You hope you don’t have to use it often,” he said. “But when you need it, you need it.”

And when you don’t, you don’t. And even though the feds give the ND Sherriff the MRAP for “free” (your tax money hard at work), the Country still have to pay for its upkeep. So let’s have a look at the rationale one more time . . .

The James Valley Special Operations Team is a regional organization of law enforcement officers that responds to situations involving armed or barricaded suspects in southeast North Dakota. The Special Operations Team currently has access to Bearcat vehicles based at Fargo, Bismarck, Minot and Grand Forks.

“The problem is that when firearms are fired at officers it takes hours to get those (Bearcat) vehicles here,” said Scott Edinger, Jamestown chief of police.

Kaiser said it is difficult for the SOT officers in Jamestown and Stutsman County to train with the Bearcats because of the vehicles’ locations. Having the MRAP based in Jamestown will allow officers to use it during training exercises . . .

“It is big and scary,” Edinger said. “It is meant for the protection of officers and civilians.”

C’mon Chief. Scaring people isn’t a bug! It’s a feature! [h/t DE]

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73 COMMENTS

  1. Somehow, I don’t think this rural sheriff in North Dakota is planning on using his MRAP to suppress the local population.

    • You’re right, of course. He’s going to deliver free meals to the elderly and indigent in it!

      IDIOT! YOU KNOW WHAT THESE ARE FOR!!!

      • *SIGH* Billy, I thought you were done with us after the Kennedy kerfluffle. Do you sleep with all the lights on? Do you check your closets for blue helmets? How do you maintain such a level of paranoia without burnout? Do you even have a job? Or are you sitting in a section 8 apartment waiting for your next fill up on the ebt card?

        Didn’t you tell us that you were creating your own blog? Go. Create. Get fvcking lost. Shoo. Take your a@s back to crazy town.

        P.S. North Dakotas weather can be extreme. That MRAP might be usefull to check on seniors during snow storms and, yes, deliver food and other assistence to people in need.

        • Or for jr deputies to take out muddin and pick up chicks, but seriously it may just be very useful to em during blizzards ice storms floods and bout any other weather ND can muster. I doubt it’ll ever see use against anyone with ill intent more likely they’ll mount a plow blade on it and use it for pullin people outta ditches and makin food runs to stranded citizens

        • I think there is a commonly used phrase for this… “Famous last words.”

          The sheriff might not be using it to suppress the local populace now – but after this kind of equipment becomes mainstream maybe even you will see a trooper jump out of one and you get to look down the barrel of a gun because you broke curfew during a “shelter in place.”

          Oh wait! Has this kind of thing already happened?

        • Man called me an IDIOT and you telling me not to be a Dick. As for the future use of one MRAP in a North Dakota county, you guys are going to worry yourselves into a nervous breakdown a long time before you get to fight the next civil war.

        • If Barney needs 4×4 there hundreds of early HMMWV moving thru DOD surplus. If he needs something better DOD (unclue dumb_ss in DC) is dumping ALL the M925 series 6×6.

    • TO: jmw
      RE: Well….

      ….didn’t we see a report a couple years ago about a sheriff trying to apprehend some family on a farm? Had to lay siege to it. Something about a ‘militia’?

      Then I recall hearing about some other such raid involving a cattle dispute.

      This looks like a nice vehicle to go calling, as opposed to a patrol car that could be riddled with holes by some well-armed farmers/ranchers.

      So, I think you’re very much mistaken when you say that this sheriff isn’t likely to be ‘suppressing’ the locals with his new toy.

      Regards,

      Chuck(le)
      [The Truth will out…..and you’re likely to be embarrassed by it….]

    • JMW – You should go read Radley Balko’s book – Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces – and then perhaps rethink this post.

    • I know how you feel, but make mine a Bren Gun Carrier… with several appropriate guns as accessories.

      Yeah, I guess I could lust after an Abrams, but good luck trying to commute with one around Seattle.

      • A Bren gun carrier! Would get expensive as you’d need to then get a Bren gun. Or maybe a BAR. Something full-auto, though, is warranted. And cool a$$ limey helments and canvas web gear. Just sayin’.

        +10 for Classic Style Points

      • Suppress the citizenry? Nah… I’d bet a twenty on it that they’ll “exercise” the vehicle on a duck or pheasant hunt. It’s ND for heaven’s sake! Those boys know the value a good off road vehicle.

        • Antelope hunting. They’ll use it for antelope hunting. And beer runs, of course. What a waste of tax money. The fuel cost for one hunt alone will probably bankrupt the county…

      • Water cooled belt fed vickers and a .55 cal Boys anti tank rifle. A universal carrier isn’t complete without them. Throw in a 2inch mortar and you rule the commute.

        • A belt fed Vickers just screams old school tactical!

          I’m sort of surprised the Chicago Independent School District hasn’t applied for MRAPs. Paint ’em bright yellow and ferry the kiddos through their Safe Routes.

    • I want a soft skinned hummer screw an mrap or a over weight up armor gimme somethin that can handle and move fast.

      • Fast? The military issue Humvee weighs 14,400 pounds fully loaded, has 113 horsepower, and has a 0-60 time of [b]43 seconds[/b]. Stopping from 60mph takes 307 feet, compared to a fully loaded semi that takes 225 feet to stop from 55.

        What was that about fast and good handling? I think the MRAP has a fighting chance in a drag race with a Humvee.

        http://www.autoblog.com/2013/05/22/banks-6-5l-humvee/

        • Those are the stats for the up armor the soft skin m998 is lighter but runs either a 6.2 diesel or a “de-tuned” 6.5 and horsepower isn’t what makes it quick its torque as the old saying goes when getting to 100mph torque gets you there horsepower keeps you there. and if you set the timin right on em they’ll turn the back tires in two high.

        • I want to watch it go straight into the ditch during the first ice storm. And stay there until Summer.

  3. This is a result of the DoD buying too many MRAPs in the first place, as a knee jerk reaction to bad press from Humvees getting blown up. Now that the wartime use has gone away (for the moment, anyways), they’re trying to figure out how to get them off the books so they can justify the next federal waste of money.

    Though the practical difference between this and a Bearcat isn’t that great, any department that gets one needs to make damn sure the new cool-guy equipment doesn’t start to change their attitude over time. Mindset is the origin of most problems.

  4. Heck, if the government is giving them away free, can I get one? Would make the morning commute a LOT more interesting!

  5. When I lived in ND I found out rather quick that needed or not the local PD’s often had a surprising variety of firearms. At least where I was it wasn’t so much that they were militarizing as it was they were all gun nuts and used their magical LEO statuses to get new toys to play with.

  6. Bad guys take notice: Stutsman County is strapped and ready. You guys better return those overdue library books NOW or Sheriff Kaiser will MRAP your @sses.

    Yeah, that’s right. He bad.

    • Stutsman County, including the sheriff and 2 full time office deputies, has a total force of 10 full time employees. With 1 used Mrap that makes a hell of an occupying force for a county of 21 thousand people.

      This is a non issue.

  8. Everyone kick in a buck for a pool on how long before the roll it on it’s side. It’ll make a good blind during moose season.

  9. “You hope you don’t have to use it…but when you need it” this is pretty much the same justification our sheriff used in their acquisition of an MRAP up here in Jefferson county New York. These guys must be faxing each other talking points. But if it works for them, why doesn’t that same argument work as justification for my ownership of an AR with high capacity magazine. After all, I hope I don’t have to use it, but when you need it..

  10. I can already see this thing sitting on its side in the ditch after the first attempt to plow a snow cover road. I can also see a deputy standing next to looking p!ssed cause his hot chocolate spilled all in his lap.

  11. For the record mraps are horrible off-road vehicles. They’re top heavy so they like to roll and have so much weight from armor they sink into anything. They also have terrible visibility like most armored vehicles.

    • Yea they do sink which is why they might (emphasis on might) be useful in the snow they may just sink to the hard pack and get a bite but then again an old duece and a half lmtv fmtv hemtt or soft skinned hmmwv would probably fill those roles as well as being much cheaper to maintain.

      • Why not just give em m113s set up for medevac only and call it good?? Oh wait we gave all those away to other countries.

  12. They should rent it out on weekends as a party bus, they’d make a killing. Prom night alone would pay for a year of upkeep.

  13. Nothing a bucket of ammonium nitrate/diesel or tannerite wouldn’t take care of.

    A waste of tax dollars and rolling proof that government is hemorrhaging money out every orifice. I would have preferred my money went for food stamps to an obese unemployed, unmarried lazy mother of six.

  14. We, the AI, use the expression “I carry a gun daily for my protection. I hope I never have to use it – but if I would, it is there to protect me.” Sounds exactly what is said by this sheriff.

    • It seems that some of the ranks have been hearing the argument “Why do you need a _____?” so much, that it has slipped into their reasoning.

    • The difference is, my gun isn’t paid for by the taxpayers. When you spend public money, you have an obligation to spend it wisely. The question isn’t “Does Podunk, ND need an MRAP?”, it’s “Can the money being spent on this ridiculous vehicle be spent better somewhere else in the police budget?” I’ll bet it can.

      • Now that’s an argument I can back. An MRAP being added to a 10 man department in a rural county isn’t a tool of oppression. It is a huge waste of taxpayer funds.

  15. Please people settle down. I have had a fleet of 27 of theses things in Afghanistan. Without constant high cost highly specialized maintenance it will be broke down in a month. It is slow. Easy to flip. You can’t see shit out of it. And can be easily disabled. And can not go off road on terrain that most standard pickups can. It’s not an offensive vehicle. It’s sole purpose was to just defend its passengers against a blast.

  16. The Militarized Police: play army all day, then go home, eat pizza and watch the ball game.

    then wonder why taxpayers make fun of you, and hold you in contempt.

  17. Maybe I’m getting complacent, but Podunk Sheriff’s Offices getting MRAPs doesn’t really bother me much anymore. It seems the DoD is just giving them away to whoever wants one regardless of whether or not they serve a purpose. Hell, if I were the Sherrif in some place in BFE and got offered one I’d be like, “fvck yeah! Send that beast right over!” But then I’d be sad three weeks later when it broke down and no one knew how to fix it.

    It really is pointless, there aren’t ant IEDs in ND as far as I know, and last I heard there isn’t much insurrection going on…the only thing I can think of is that they could use it as a really expensive snow plow.

    • Snow plow? Spin all four while you slide into the ditch. And stay there until the mud dries up so you can get out. Hell, there aren’t even many paved roads around Jamestown anyway.

  19. TO: Robert Farago
    RE: Heh

    Did DHS make you delete that earlier post of mine?

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [Thermite, when it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed immediately.]

  20. We’ll,
    There is the extra cost to maintain it, the extra cost to operate it, it will sit around for months doing nothing.
    The sherif is dumb, it wasn’t free, it cannot really go off road so it is useless in most instances.
    Wonder when the last time was when they needed to be worried about mines on well maintained roads.
    Where will he bury the cost of new radio, more comfortable seats, fuel, gotta park it somewhere, who has the keys, who used it last – no fuel, etc?
    These things are like computers – upfront costs are cheap but maintenance and updates are a bitch.
    Congratulations citizens, you now have a POOR decision maker, remember that at the next election, that sherif is a jerk.

  21. Am I the only one who wishes the Feds would’ve just kept the receipts and gotten their money – the money of the US Taxpayer – back? Now, the taxpayers of ND get stuck with the maintenance bill. The disparity of weapons and the means to carry them between the LEO and the citizen continues to grow.

    • And a blown tire costs what – $15k? Park it in front of the American Legion Hall next to the cannon and call it a day.

      • Oh Lord. Now you’ve reminded the non hackers of all the artillery parked around town squares and legion halls. They’ll be drizzling in their panties about the firepower available to oppress us with.

  22. “It is meant for the protection of officers and civilians.”

    Hey, Chief, they’re the same thing. You’re not a soldier, you’re a civilian just like the rest of us.

    • It is amazing how the Chiefs of Police and Police commissioners have brainwashed their patrolmen etc. to refer to people as civilians. Given the Chief is a political appointee, that makes him a bureaucrat. Don’t forget, the Chief’s officers will be able to use it for training exercises. lmao

  24. Wait 2yr and they can sell off the components. Low mile Cat engine, Allison Trans. 4x $1200 tires. All profit.

  25. Now the entire Sheriffs Department can ride in one vehicle when the “hot donuts now” sign is on!

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