Personnel Carrier Free to Police Department

If you've been by within the past few days, you may have noticed a military personnel carrier sitting at the corner of Main and Bartow streets. 

The tracked vehicle came at no cost to the department and city through a government program offering surplus equipment to law enforcement agencies. It was at one time property of the Mississippi National Guard.

The personnel carrier can be used to transport Tactical Team or S.W.A.T. officers to a crime scene, providing protection from incoming gun fire, and to go into a "hot situation" and extract wounded officers or civilians, police say.  

Because it's a track vehicle, the carrier also can serve as a transport vehicle in areas where other vehicles, such as patrol cars, are unable to travel. Should a terrorist attack take place in metro Atlanta, would have a military vehicle to bolster Homeland Security efforts and protection.