EL DORADO — It’s not what the truck is used for, it’s what the decal on the side says that counts.
At least, that’s the somewhat perplexing lesson learned with no small measure of throw-up-your-hands frustration by the city of El Dorado after a recent tussle with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In 2008, the south Arkansas city purchased a $115,758 bomb truck with a grant from the federal agency. The truck is used for SWAT and bomb-squad purposes, and the Police Department opted to mark it “SWAT” because it typically responds to twice as many SWAT-team activities than bomb-squad calls.
Big mistake.
Earlier this year, two Homeland Security auditors arrived in town and took great issue with the SWAT decal. They ordered the Police Department to remove it and to slap on a new insignia: Bomb Squad.
El Dorado Police Chief Ricky Roberts said the two auditors were adamant about the infraction — a mistake that the Police Department didn’t even know it had made.
“They acted like, ‘Yeah, we’ve caught you doing something wrong.’ Evidently it struck a nerve with them, and they wanted it off,” said Roberts, a 28-year veteran who has led the department for nearly 13 years.
Labeling a truck approved for use as a hybrid SWAT/ Bomb Squad unit strictly as a SWAT unit ran afoul of federal rules that require it to be identified for the exact purpose it was acquired — in this case, bomb removal, according to a September report from the federal agency’s Office of Inspector General.
What makes sense in Washington, D.C., doesn’t quite add up in El Dorado. The department has the only bomb squad in south Arkansas and has removed potentially explosive materials from Texarkana to Fordyce.
There was the grenade that a suspect laid down on the sidewalk when Texarkana officers asked him if he had any weapons. And the artillery shell uncovered in a field near Hope. El Dorado’s bomb squad responds to roughly one call a month. So, it made sense to also use the truck for more common SWAT activities, especially methamphetamine raids, which can be explosive.
“With meth, you really don’t know what you’re getting into,” Roberts said.
“Boom,” said Mayor Frank Hash, unfurling his hands by way of illustration.
Bomb technicians drove the truck and responded to both types of calls.
But the department complied with federal wishes. It removed the SWAT decal, and a sympathetic vendor, who also has a lot of police graphics thrown his way, plastered on “Bomb Squad” lettering free of charge. Close examination reveals a bit of faded paint here and there, evidence of the transformation. That bugs Roberts a bit, who prides himself on his department’s spic-and-span image, but it works.
Of course, four or five months of photographs, emails and phone calls between the state Department of Emergency Management and federal officials wore a bit thin, Roberts said.
“We don’t feel like we did anything wrong, even though they said they were going to write us up. And I guess they did,” Roberts said. Hash mentioned the thousands of Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers lined up forlornly in Hope in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as possibly an example of bigger fish that they might have tossed a bit earlier into the fryer.
“Talk about all these FEMA trailers,” Roberts agreed. “Yet, you want to tag us for some graphics? Come on now.”
Arlen Morales, spokesman for Homeland Security’s office of inspector general, said her agency is now satisfied.
“The truck has been painted and is now serving its intended purpose,” she wrote in an e-mail from Washington.
The El Dorado infraction was highlighted in a September 2012 auditor’s report that purported to uncover evidence of mismanagement in Arkansas. The 33-page report detailed minor problems with Arkansas’ handling of the grants but ruled the state compliant. The three photographs in the document all featured El Dorado’s bomb truck.
The report included before and after photographs of the bomb squad vehicle, and a response from El Dorado officials.
Tina Owens, deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, said El Dorado’s kerfuffle with the federal officials was the first time something like that had come up. Then again, the state just went through its first audit with the agency’s inspector general’s office, she said.
“They bought it for a specific purpose, and it has to be labeled as such,” Owens said. “If there is no label, that is fine, but if it’s incorrect, it has to be fixed.”
Otherwise, “it kind of misleads the public as to what the purpose is,” she added.
Capt. Mike Leveritt, who leads the El Dorado bomb squad, is proud of his unit. It conducts training for law enforcement agencies across south Arkansas. He said he knew trouble was brewing when he initially joked with the auditors, pointing out a 1972 converted ambulance being used as a crime scene unit truck, telling them that that was what the police had bought with federal money.
They were not amused, Leveritt said.
“I don’t know what the big deal was. They came out and wanted to see a $115,000 truck. It was all in fun,” he said.
Roberts said his department takes its role as south Arkansas’ go-to bomb-disposal unit seriously and tries to be “good stewards” of its federally funded equipment. The department has received millions of dollars in federal grants over the years and has never been out of compliance before, he said.
Hash said he recently walked away from a federal highway grant for a trolleylike bus that would have ferried tourists from hotels at the edge of the town of 18,789 to the bustling town square for festivals and concerts. Too much red tape, he said.
“You think you got a little leeway? Uh-uh,” Hash said.
As for the case of the mislabeled bomb truck, Hash has a theory.
“That’s how you justify your existence,” he said. “You better create a report with some meat in it.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/21/2012