Thanks to a military surplus program through the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency, the SERT team has acquired a mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, also known as an armored personnel vehicle, at no cost to the county. The program is coordinated through the DLA’s Law Enforcement Support Office.

“It’s a good asset to have,” Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener told The Messenger. “Hopefully we never need it, but if we do, it’s here.”

The vehicle is dedicated to the memory of fallen Rockwell City Police Officer Jamie Buenting, who was a member of the SERT team and was shot and killed in September 2013 when the SERT team was responding to a barricaded armed suspect in Rockwell City.

Fleener wants to prevent another officer losing his life like Buenting, and the armored vehicle will provide more safety for the SERT team that it doesn’t have with its current transportation.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Members of the Webster County/Fort Dodge regional Special Emergency Response Team practice exiting the armored vehicle on Tuesday.

“That van that we transport people with isn’t armored and we are very much exposed to people with rifles and handguns that could shoot through the side of a vehicle without any hesitation,” he said.

There will be a strict policy on when the vehicle can be deployed, Fleener said.

“It’s not every time the team goes out, they use it,” he said. “There are some benchmarks that have to be established to justify the use of this being on scene.”

The vehicle may look intimidating, but it is not an offensive weapon — it is purely a defensive tool to protect the lives of the law enforcement officers inside and behind it. Essentially, the vehicle is a giant ballistics shield on wheels

“It’s not on patrol, it’s just used for tactical high-risk operations that could be life-dependent,” Fleener said. “In an extreme case of a bank robbery, where somebody could be injured, we could use that as cover to get up between the threat and where that person was injured at.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Members of the Webster County/Fort Dodge regional Special Emergency Response Team cautiously advance toward a suspect vehicle during a training on Tuesday afternoon.

One of the first things Fleener did once he took office in 2021, he said, was apply to be part of the LESO program.

“Primarily because of what happened to Jamie and because we just can’t afford an armored vehicle,” Fleener said.

A brand-new armored vehicle like the one the SERT team now has would cost upwards of $300,000, he said.

The specific vehicle the SERT team acquired was most recently used by the Special Response Team of the Pharr, Texas, Police Department.

“It’s a small community about this size, but they’re close to the border and they used it for the same thing, for their tactical unit,” Fleener said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener talks with members of the SERT team during training with the team's new armored vehicle on Tuesday.

The only cost the SERT team accrued during the process was the $4,000 it took to transport the vehicle from Texas to Iowa. That cost was covered by confiscated funds, Fleener said, so it didn’t cost taxpayers any money.

When the vehicle arrived in Webster County, Iowa Central Community College’s Auto Collision Technology Program repainted the vehicle and added the decals.

On Tuesday, members of the SERT team trained with the new vehicle. It sits several feet off the ground, so the team members had to learn how to safely enter and exit the vehicle while wearing all of their tactical gear. The vehicle can carry six personnel in the back, plus a driver and a front passenger.

The vehicle weighs roughly 36,800 pounds. Fleener said inside the vehicle will be a comprehensive map of the region with roads and bridges that can’t handle that kind of weight noted and alternative routes marked.

Fleener said the armored vehicle will also be used in community outreach events like National Night Out, Iowa Central’s Careers on Wheels and the Webster County Fair.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
FDPD Officers Dylan Samuelson, Matt Meyer and Nick Ruggles train with the Webster County/Fort Dodge regional Special Emergency Response Team on Tuesday afternoon.

The SERT team is primarily composed of deputies with the Webster County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Fort Dodge Police Department. A deputy with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is also on the team, and there are spots for members from the Rockwell City Police Department and Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, though they don’t currently have an active SERT team member, Fleener said.

The team handles things like barricaded suspects and high-risk search warrants in Webster, Humboldt and Calhoun counties. Typically, they deploy about once a month, Fleener said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Webster County Sheriff's Deputy Cody Harris uses the new SERT armored vehicle as cover during a training with the team on Tuesday afternoon.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Webster County Sheriff's Deputy Harmon Atwood provides cover for members of the SERT team during a training with the team's new armored vehicle on Tuesday afternoon.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Fort Dodge Police Officers Nathan Wolfe and Nick Ruggles train with other members of the Webster County/Fort Dodge regional Special Emergency Response Team on Tuesday afternoon.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Members of the Webster County/Fort Dodge regional Special Emergency Response Team exit the team's new armored vehicle during a training on Tuesday afternoon.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
The Webster County/Fort Dodge regional Special Emergency Response Team's new armored vehicle is dedicated to the memory of former Rockwell City Police Officer Jamie Buenting, who was part of the SERT team and was killed when the team responded to an armed standoff in Rockwell City on Sept. 13, 2013. Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener, the SERT commander, said the purpose of the armored vehicle is to make sure what happened to Buenting doesn't happen to another officer on the team.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Fort Dodge Police Officer Dylan Samuelson, center, pets Rooster, a K-9 partnered with Humboldt County Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Shillington, left. The law enforcement officers are part of the regional Special Emergency Response Team and were participating in a training on Tuesday afternoon.