CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Some Bradley County commissioners are questioning why the county sheriff’s office sold a fully equipped surveillance van to a Nashville bail bondsman for $20,000.
During Monday’s Finance Committee meeting, Commissioner Dan Rawls said the vehicle had “well in excess of $100,000 of equipment” aboard and only 3,513 miles on the odometer.
Dan Rawls
Bradley County Mayor D. Gary DavisCommissioners were skeptical when Richard McAllister, director of support services for the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office, said the 2006 Ford van and equipment were old and the department couldn’t sell it on GovDeals.com, where it disposes of other worn-out sheriff’s department vehicles.
Instead, McAllister said, the county took the van to a Tennessee Sheriffs Association event and offered to let other departments bid on it. The TSA’s winter expo and training was Feb. 2-4 in Franklin, Tenn.
“But $20,000 was the best we could get on it,” McAllister said. The van was purchased new in 2005, he said, but changes in electronics come so fast “that when that truck got to the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office, it was obsolete at that time.”