BRATTLEBORO – The Brattleboro Selectboard approved a contract this week to update technology and equipment for the Brattleboro Police Department. Officers will now be equipped with body cameras, in keeping with current national trends in transparency and safety. BPD will also be receiving three new vehicles, two of which will be squad cars and the third which is being described as a “major incident vehicle.”
The major incident vehicle will come in the form of an “Amplified Mobility Platform” that police say will aid them in their pursuit of criminals across Brattleboro’s rugged terrain. The AMP will also be equipped with cameras, as well as floodlights, sirens, drug-detecting scanners, torpedoes, and surface-to-air missiles. “We want our folks to be prepared for anything,” said Police Chief Michael Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald went on to explain that, while some may view the AMP as overkill, “We are understaffed, underfunded, and underpaid. Do you know how long it’s been since we had enough money to do everything we really need to do to be an effective police force? So when they actually approved the funds for a new vehicle of our choice, it wasn’t going to be a Segway, I can tell you that right now.”
The BPD expects to have an officer trained and patrolling in the AMP as early as spring 2019.
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