ATV benefits law enforcement

SUZETTE COOK/Alachua County Today

The City of Waldo bought this ATV Polaris with drug bust funds.

WALDO – The City of Waldo turned drug forfeiture dollars into a $9,500 red Polaris 500 All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to help them monitor the back roads and wooded areas of their rural community. Waldo Police Chief Mike Szabo explained that they used these funds to purchase the vehicle in May 2011 and the two-seater has remained a very useful law enforcement tool.

On any given day you might see the red patrol vehicle parked in between brick buildings, tucked away and out of sight.

“Sometimes CSX Railroad will contact us and ask us to patrol their railroad tracks,” he said. “When we have to go back in the woods to areas impassible by other vehicles, this is what we take. We have used it during Click It or Ticket campaigns, along tree lined areas and trails, and sometimes along sidewalks next to parked vehicles,” he said.

In addition, the Alachua Police Department has borrowed it to use during their recent July 4^th event.

“We send someone along from our department,” said Szabo, “but their department finds it useful to get into places where there is standing traffic or where normal patrol vehicles cannot go.”

The Polaris has been used by Alachua County and by Lake City during the Olustee Festival and Battle Reenactment in February.

The vehicle is something Szabo says their small city could never have afforded on their own, “but it has been really useful in a number of situations,” he said. “We are pleased to have it.”

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