Every month Dunmore Police Chief Patrick Reese sends a borough officer to Harrisburg to scout out the goods.
Filing cabinets, generators, office printing paper, all-terrain vehicles or trailers - nothing is off-limits. And the best part is most of the equipment is discounted by as much as 80 or 90 percent, Chief Reese said.
Last year, he bought a $25,000 Humvee for less than $2,500, a tool the department used to set up barriers during Hurricane Sandy and plans to use during severe snowstorms, Chief Reese said.
"That stuff I wouldn't be able to buy (otherwise)," he said.
He discovered the government program in the early 1990s and has been going ever since, filling out the law-enforcement-only application to screen the surplus government items through the Law Enforcement 1033 Excess Property Program and the Law Enforcement 1122 New Property Program in Harrisburg.
"Whatever the government has, we can get," Chief Reese said.
And he spread the word to other municipalities.
Acting Scranton Police Chief Carl Graziano and Lackawanna College Police Academy Director Dan Duffy made a trip Wednesday to Harrisburg for cheap supplies - everything from boxes of hand sanitizer to field-ready equipment.
Mr. Duffy came back with blankets for a first-aid course, ammunition cans for firing ranges, kneepads, shields, a ballistic helmet and medical scales, all valued at well over $1,000, he said. He got everything for less than $400.
"There's a lot of good deals down there, and we took advantage of it," Mr. Duffy said.
Chief Graziano scored a handful of brand new computer monitors, usually priced at more than $200, for $35, packs of boxes for evidence technicians, respirators for crime scene units and an exercise bike for the workout room valued at $2,000 for $175.
He plans on paying for the discount purchases with forfeiture money, he said.
"Little things you get for 80, 90 percent (off), you've got to take advantage of that. We've got to tap into every resource we can tap into to get the officers what they need," Chief Graziano said.
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