Retired ambulance receives second life in law enforcement
LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A retired ambulance is getting a second life in law enforcement.
Priority Ambulance donated the former medical rig to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins has a little different use in mind for the vehicle.
After a few aftermarket modifications, it will be put into service as the primary transport vehicle for the Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team.
Currently, when the team is called out, they have to use multiple vehicles to get to the scene.
This will make getting there more efficient and safer.
“Well, to me, prior law enforcement myself, so I understand that sheriff’s departments sometimes don’t have an endless budget to go buy whatever they need. In this case, this is going to give them the ability to be safer in what they’re doing, and I think any time we can, as an ambulance service, any time we can step up and try to do something like this to help them and make sure they’re safe, we’re going to certainly step up and do that,” said South Region president Dwayne Tullos.
“Well, protecting the public is the most important thing for us, but keeping our guys safe while they’re doing so is ultimately our responsibility, and what we want to do. This means a lot to us getting this donated to us,” said Sheriff Hawkins.
The ambulance comes at no cost to county taxpayers. Sheriff Hawkins is exploring options to bring the retrofitting costs down. It could be ready for duty in the next few weeks.
