St. Cloud Police Get Thumbs Up To Acquire Surplus Military Gear

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud Police Department has gotten the green light to acquire surplus military equipment.

A resolution was approved in Monday’s city council consent agenda to allow the department to continue getting the gear from the Law Enforcement Support Office program.

This was the first year the program had to be made public because of Presidential Executive Order 14074, the Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety order, which was signed on May 25th, 2022. The resolution authorizes the department to get items if they are available and in need, such as armored vehicles, ballistic shields, explosive ordinance disposal robots, heavy equipment/vehicles, K9 transport containers, night vision, rifle conversion kits, small arms parts, radios, thermal cameras, warm weather clothing and more.

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis says the move will save the department money because “rather than having oftentimes to buy that equipment, which is very expensive, if it’s surplus it is either going to be scrapped or in this case we can receive it.”

Since the program started in 1997, St. Cloud has obtained property valued at more than $1.2 million.

Kleis says the equipment helps to ensure officers can get home to their families at the end of the day. “We get items that, for the most part, are items that can protect our officers or our SWAT teams creating safety for them in a dangerous situation.”

According to LESO officials, since the program’s inception, less than two percent of equipment transferred are small arms and less than one percent are tactical vehicles. More than 8,800 law enforcement agencies have enrolled in the program nationwide.

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