Decatur Co. Sheriff’s Office sells military equipment

DECATUR COUNTY, Tenn. — A local sheriff’s office is selling military equipment to make money.

“A lot of people are under the misconception that I’m buying this stuff,” said Decatur County Sheriff Keith Byrd. “I’m not buying this stuff. It’s being given to use by the U.S. government.”

For $400 a year, Byrd subscribes to the Law Enforcement Support Office.

Byrd goes online to find property the sheriff’s office can use, then tells them why he needs it.

“I have a lot of equipment here that we use practically every day that we otherwise wouldn’t have because some of it is expensive stuff,” Byrd said.

Some equipment Byrd can keep after a year, and other equipment is just loaned out to the sheriff’s office.

Although the sheriff cannot own certain equipment, such as an armored truck, Class C, he says his deputies use it for any type of barricade situation or a bomb threat.

But the equipment Byrd can keep, he sells later.

“I sold 23 items and got almost $50,000, and we put that in our drug fund,” Byrd said. “We’re going to use some or all of that to buy patrol cars with.”

Byrd says over the last several years he’s gotten hundreds of pieces of equipment, ranging from weed eaters to armored vehicles.

The equipment is given to the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office through the Department of Defense.

“It’s stuff we couldn’t afford to buy but a lot of this stuff, after a year, it becomes property of the sheriff’s office, and we can sell it as surplus property,” Byrd said.

In the most recent sale, the sheriff’s office made almost $50,000.