Wisconsin Capitol Police spend nearly $5,000 on LRAD for disrupting protestors

Earlier today the Wisconsin Department of Administration unveiled its new Open Book website which will give interested parties “easy access to State of Wisconsin expenditures, or the amount of money we spend to do business.” Not surprisingly, there were a lot of folks who were keen to see how our “fiscally responsible” Republican-led state government spends taxpayer dollars, and among those folks was Giles Goat Boy, a user over at DailyKos. As first reported by Giles Goat Boy, a quick search on Open Book showed the state Department of Administration spent nearly $5,000 on an LRAD device.

For those of you who don’t know what an LRAD is, it’s a “self contained, hand portable loud hailer and that can easily be heard over the background noise of vehicles, vessels, sirens and boisterous crowds to ensure the messages and commands are heard and clearly understood,” according to the LRAD Corporation website.

Here’s a screenshot of the LRAD purchase (which was made using a state-issued credit card).

The DOA's $5,000 LRAD

I know I’m not alone in questioning the need for the Department of Administration to spend thousands of tax dollars to purchase a shiny new LRAD device used primarily to attempt to disrupt folks like those participating in the Solidarity Sing Along. It seems like an extremely foolish and wasteful purchase, but I’m sure it’s just one of many foolish and wasteful purchases made by those “fiscally responsible” Republicans in Scott Walker’s administration.

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