Armored vehicle gives cops extra eyes on crime in Bradenton neighborhoods

As people walked along the sidewalks and children were escorted to their bus stops, police cars and armored vehicles lined 15th Street West in Bradenton at sunrise Thursday morning, but officers were not there to investigate a crime.

Several Bradenton police officers, sergeants, captains and Chief Melanie Bevan gathered at the corner of 15th Street West at 12th Avenue West as part of a Community Squad Meeting, an effort to deter crime in the community and interact with residents.

For Michele Merritt and Wayne Moynihan, the police presence and armored vehicle decked out with surveillance equipment across the street from their house was a welcome sight.

“It’s good to see officers finally starting to take action,” Moynihan said.

Merritt and Moynihan were sitting on their front porch Thursday morning after sending two teenage daughters off to school. They said they regularly call police to the area to report drug use and other crimes.

“The area’s gotten really bad,” Merritt said.

She said they have found used syringes and spoons from drug use in the street. Occasionally, they will see someone shooting up drugs on the corner near the Salvation Army.

Moynihan agreed.

“I told them they’re welcome to sit in our yard all day long,” Moynihan said.

With two daughters and a couple of bus stops in the community, seeing the officers and the armored vehicles in the area was a positive sign that police are aware of the issues on their streets.

“I’m glad they’re out there but they need to be out here more often. A lot of departments are short staffed, I understand that but stuff like the (armored vehicle) should help,” Moynihan said.

The new armored surveillance vehicle featured at the early morning Community Squad Meeting was purchased by the Bradenton Police Department earlier this year for $1, Bevan said.

An armored vehicle company in Sarasota was decommissioning the vehicle, Bevan said, and offered it to the department. Police then had it painted and placed a design wrap featuring officers of the past and present on the vehicle and equipped it with several surveillance cameras.

“We can actually put it out in a neighborhood where there’s suspicious activity going on,” Officer Kenny Simunovic said. “Where an officer can’t be 24/7, this can be.”

Sides of the truck state “surveillance cameras in use” and cameras are placed in nearly every bulletproof window. Everything the cameras capture is recorded and police can use it in investigations. Officials said it would also work to deter crime in the communities where it will be placed.

They hope to finish working on a few technology pieces in the vehicle then able to place it in neighborhoods soon.

“By getting it for only a dollar, it gives us something we wouldn’t normally be able to have,” Simunovic said. “Now, the community can see this very important piece of policing in their neighborhoods.”

Officers stayed in the community most of the morning, and will return to the 1200 block of 15th Street from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Armored vehicle gives cops extra eyes on crime in Bradenton neighborhoods."