News-Record.com

Over their past few meetings, Guilford County Commissioners have looked at whether the sheriff’s office should get a light plane.

What would have been an administrative decision has turned into hours of conversation.
The Department of Justice would buy the plane, and the money from sheriff’s office confiscations would pay for the aircraft’s operation. Alamance, Davidson, Randolph and Rockingham counties would all use the plane to do stuff such as search for missing people and look for marijuana fields.

Commissioners Melvin “Skip” Alston and Bruce Davis were concerned with the $1 million insurance policy on the aircraft. They thought it was too small, and spent about an hour Thursday on that and other concerns.
“If this crashed, and it killed two to three people,” Alston said, “there’s a possibility for us to be held liable.”

If the sheriff’s office crashed a car and killed some people, the county could be held liable too, Commissioner Linda Shaw noted.

So the wonks here at ‘Scoop checked into some accident rates.

In the last 10 years there’s been one recorded crash with the plane, a light two-seater called a Savannah VG. Both the passengers survived, said Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association.
Nationwide, 50 law enforcement officers died in traffic-related accidents in 2007, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

A free plane from the feds with a good safety record, paid for by money taken from bad guys?

Sounds like a deal.

Not to Alston.

“This is a not a tool, it’s a toy for the sheriff’s department to use,” he said.

The vote passed 8-3, with Alston, Davis and Carolyn Coleman voting no.