Sheriff Showtime is about to spend up to $5M of your money on something built to surveil you. And the County Commission has buried it deeeeeep in its consent agenda. Nice job, George, Neil, etc. LOL.\
By BILLY TOWNSEND
This is item 23:3901 on the Polk County Commission’s consent agenda for December 5th’s meeting.
Request the Board approve a transfer from reserves to the Sheriff’s Budget for the purchase of a Kodiak fixed-wing aircraft and imaging system. (Up to $5,000,000 one-time expense)
That’s it. LOL. There is no other explanation on the agenda item. And it is literally buried at the bottom of the consent agenda. See below.
That means your Polk County Commission plans to approve this “fixed-wing aircraft and imaging system” along with the rest of the consent agenda as its first official act during Tuesday’s meeting with zero public discussion or questioning or explanation. Petty dictatorships are funny things.
We don’t even have enough information to know what type of “Kodiak fixed-wing aircraft and imaging system” Sheriff Showtime is forcing us to buy so that he can “image” us more crisply. My best guess is this, the Kodiak 100. See the video and info here and below.
“It can loiter virtually undetected for up to 10 hours at very slow speeds” seems noteworthy — as does the ISR acronym, which means “Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.”
“A stealthy and effective ISR tool” for what missions, exactly, Grady?
So let’s recap: Grady is about to spend $5M of your money on a Kodiak platform so he can loiter over your backyard pool undetected for hours and “image” you and your loved ones.
Or maybe, it will “loiter” over the next peaceful protest he pretends is a riot and “image” your faces so he can order deputies to hunt you down like he did with the panty-tossing lady.
Can the “imaging” technology see through walls and read thermal signatures inside homes, in bedrooms, etc.? I bet it can.
These are all as plausible as any other ISR “mission” Grady has told us he plans to fly with this $5M dictatorship toy. (He has told us about none.) Keep in mind, this is the same Sheriff Showtime who claims body cameras on police officers are an invasion of the public’s privacy. LOL. It seems like a fleet of drones would at least be cheaper than this Rolls-Royce of government snooping.
Mostly, I suspect this plane comes from the same tendency to dictatorship, personal indulgence, and self-aggrandizement that leads Grady to surround himself with a cordon of deputies at any outdoor public event to prevent Antifa from making a run at him or something.
What an over-the-hill joke he is.
What is the point of your public existence, Neil Combee, Martha Santiago, George Lindsay, Rick Wilson, and Bill Braswell?
I would appeal to the sense of shame or dignity or, even, perish the thought, duty elected Polk County commissioners might feel to represent the public’s fiscal and privacy interests in this dictatorship toy transaction.
But what’s the point?
I have to tell George Lindsay a $5M domestic spy plane purchase shouldn’t be on the consent agenda? I have to tell Bill Braswell that he should at least make Grady explain exactly what he plans to do with dictatorship toy?
That is beyond embarrassing. George and Neil, I know you hate each other. But is there any chance either of you would have let a $5M spy plane pass on the consent agenda a decade ago? What happened to ya’ll? You were formidable once.
My dudes — and dudette — I went toe-to-toe with Grady Judd at the peak of his power in public after Parkland and won. Polk County public school teachers are not packing heat today. And nobody’s punished me for it yet.
This deteriorating shell of Grady’s former self is not worth your fear. Do your jobs. Make him justify his $5 million dictatorship toy in public. And if he doesn’t have a good explanation, tell him No for once in his life.
If it will help keep us and our families and property safer then I’m All for it. Because if you divide the 5m by the amount of citizens in Polk county it’s a small investment
You are naive to think this is for your safety. It’s clearly for an agenda to push himself and his henchmen into your personal spaces
Missing oh so much of the point. If a society continues to sacrifice privacy for safety in the end they wind up having neither. Body cams for his deputies first, then maybe a reasonably articulated explanation as to why he needs this $5m piece of spy equipment, to go along with all the new surveillance cameras already installed along the highways and at intersections under his authority. Until he has his deputies in body cams, all new surveillance funding should be cut, period. They’re all abusing loopholes in the law the allow for non-disclosure of surveillance techniques etc and it’s as corrupt as it gets. I’m no liberal, I love guns and what’s left of our “freedom”, but he needs to be put in check for once in his career.
Amen to that for sure! What was once a country for freedom is becoming a prison in your own home.
YES, A SMALL investment on the public loosing its privacy!
Rights are like muscles; u have to exercise them or u lose them. We need to exercise our right to privacy just like he does with no body or dash cams.
I’m totally against it, until I hear exactly what it will be used for and if there are limitations as to what it can be used for. I don’t think our private lives should be under spy surveillance, within our homes or yards. I mean the CHINESE cvp does this!! Is Polk turning into Chinese CCP? HOW ABOUT RE EDUCATE AND REHAB THE people who commit crimes in Polk county. Even if there were only a 10% success rate, it’s better than ZERO. No they just put them back on the streets amongst us with nothing. His supposed Hilton, aka jail, hasn’t cut down on crime. So do something about it Grady Judd. Don’t know if any of you know but he is a very very wealthy man. And the jails in Polk are substandard . With no rehabilitation . A total revolving door that are owned by the judges and lawyers. Yes I want to see crime go down. But u aren’t gonna see that happen when these pple don’t get some rehabilitation, period.
I say buy,buy,,buy!! Could save people’s lives! Privacy most of us lost.that.yrs.ago.The word dictator was numerous in your ranting!!. Sheriff Judd is no dictator Obama, Biden yes!! Your obviously have a personal grudge against the sheriff.do.i assume you are a.librral.democrat! You talk.of privacy rights, but only for your party and it’ minions. ZCome on Man!!!
I am for this expense. Our county is a very safe county compared to others. With the influx of illegals to this country why not have our sheriffs department have ALL the tools it needs. I am sure that their will be county oversite as to the use of this item. I personally have nothing to hide. The plane can, I’m sure be used for search of missing children ,or adults. If one child or missing adult is found because of this aircraft. The benefit outweighs the cost.
Safe country? I sure see a lot safer countries out there that are not monitoring their communities at a huge expense for the people. Authoritarian any way you look at it.
Grady’s got some ‘splaining to do, as do the county commissioners. What the what?!
I get it! The population in polk county is booming! Who’s fault is that!??? Our worthless county commissioners don’t care about the road congestion to go anywhere! There isn’t an apartment complex they can say no to! Trash all over 540 and county roads! A drone?? Hell no! Fix and expand the roads first! Grady has a helicopter! We need relief from all this froth! Vote every commissioner out of office ! It’s all about the tax dollars!
Why a drone? He’s already spent millions on FLOCK cameras throughout the county! How much surveillance do we need in Polk county?? He’s a county sheriff, not the CIA or FBI!
I think we need to spend money towards rehabilitation programs that would help people locking up every body is not going to solve the problem .we should take them 5 millions dollars and open up a trade school for all none violent criminals allow them to earn money to help there family’s
Grady is a POS dictator !!!!
It’s good that Sheriff Judd is attempting to allocate state funds for this unessessary purchase seeing they already allegidly have recon drones on specific patrol units. I’m sure if the state funding falls short, they will just keep eyes on some street pharmacists and gather the funding through takedown busts.
Nothing against Judd but why do we to spend $5Million for a stealth plane that can travel at 10 mph? Won’t a regular plane work for what he needs? And why can’t our Deputies wear body cameras and have dashboard cameras? That protects taxpayers from frivolous lawsuits? They already have plenty of drones to search for people and patrol the streets. Why didn’t the County pitch in on the 105’ ladder truck that the City of Bartow bought since the Court House is the only building tall enough to need it? All this crazy spending sprees on nonsense has to stop!
Polk County Commissioners Meeting
When: December 5, 2023
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Where: 330 W. Church St., Bartow in the County Commission Boardroom.
Meetings are held the first and third Tuesday of every month.