By Police1 Staff
People across the country are flocking to convenience stores to lay down bets on the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot. They do this despite the fact that each individual has as much chance of winning the big prize as getting attacked by a giant squid in Utah’s Great Salt Lake. In hopeful anticipation, they pick numbers based on birthdays, anniversaries, the age of the family dog, or randomly-picked sets generated by the Lotto machine. They fantasize about using the winnings to buy extravagant things and when the numbers are announced they dejectedly toss their losing tickets in the waste basket.
But the current frenzy got us thinking: What if a police department suddenly had a $1.5 billion windfall? What utterly useless and frivolous thing would they buy? More realistically, what law enforcement equipment and/or services would a department seek to buy?
We put this question to our Facebook fans, and collected some of their best responses — from serious to ridiculous — below. Add your thoughts in the comments section.
“Start a fund for officers whose lives are ruined because of false accusations.” — Carmen Lendman
“Start a fund for all first responder families who fell during 9/11.” — David Shaw
“I’m sure the Commissioners would find a way to reallocate the funds to something pointless for the city/town/county.” — KZ VAnderwerff
“Admin would buy themselves gold-plated Ranger Rover patrol cars.” — Russell Fitzpatrick
“A new president.” — Chris Graff
“I would buy a unit that didn’t overheat after sitting stationary for five minutes.” — Richard Garcia
“A bearcat....I always wanted a bearcat.” — Paco Moreno
“Was talking today about what if everyone in the dept [sic] bought in on a Powerball ticket and won. Who’d actually come into work?” — Jody Camper
“We’d probably end up having an empty shift!“ — Doug Idn
“If I win, I will buy our entire police force new bullet proof cars!” — Kerrie Riddle
“Well, at a 10 percent rate of return, less 3 percent adjustment for inflation, that would net about $49M/year. Ought to be enough to put at least a few more officers through academy.” — Nate Raugutt
“Nachos and beer, lots of beer.” — Robert Barcello
“Salaries, equipment, and training.” — Bob Cronin
“Take home cars for everyone.” — Carlos Pabon Jr.
“Robocops for everyone.” — Daniel Warner
“More officers and updated equipment.” — Rod Tiner
“Gold plated donuts?” — Mike Rubio