BRADENTON BEACH – Anna Maria Island Moose Lodge 2188 gave the city a $10,000 donation to purchase eight mini ballistic shields for the city’s police officers.
During the July 16 city commission meeting, Police Chief John Cosby thanked the Moose lodge for its latest police department-related donation.
“Our public-private partnership with the Moose Lodge is something that the department itself and the Moose Lodge has put together over the years,” Cosby said.
Cosby said he and Sgt. Steven Masi recently had a conversation with members of the Moose lodge’s leadership team about the possibility of the officers having to respond to an active shooter situation and having no way to protect themselves.
According to Slate Solutions, a company that specializes in the sale of police safety equipment, a ballistic shield is a handheld, bullet-resistant barrier designed to stop gunfire and provide mobile cover for law enforcement officers.
“Sergeant Masi found these mini shields that we can put in each car,” Cosby told the commission. “We used to have a full-size SWAT shield, but it’s very heavy and it had to be left at the station. We couldn’t buy one for every car because the expense was just ridiculous.”
Cosby said that one shield was destroyed by saltwater intrusion during the 2024 hurricanes.
“These are designed to take the place of that,” Cosby said. “I was planning on buying half of them out of this year’s budget and half out of next year’s budget. When I talked to Moose representatives, they were more than happy to donate the money to pay for them.”
The commission then unanimously approved the acceptance of the $10,000 donation, with no Moose lodge representatives in attendance.
