By Joseph Kerkula
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota – A new account from Minnesota has complicated the controversy surrounding a fleet of vehicles now in the possession of the Liberia National Police, with the Brooklyn Park Police Department saying it did not directly sell any vehicles to Liberian police authorities.
The clarification by Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley directly challenges an explanation previously attributed to Liberia’s Inspector General of Police, Colonel Gregory Coleman, who reportedly said the vehicles were purchased from police authorities in Brooklyn Park rather than obtained from a drug cartel.
Bruley made the clarification during an interview with Liberian journalist Cyrus McGee in Brooklyn Park.
According to the police chief, Coleman did visit the Brooklyn Park Police Headquarters and received used police equipment and uniforms during the visit.
But Bruley said the encounter did not include a direct sale of police vehicles to the Liberia National Police.
The distinction is significant because it raises a basic question about the origin of the vehicles: if the Brooklyn Park Police Department did not sell them to Liberia, through whom were they acquired?
Bruley explained that his department does not directly sell vehicles after they are removed from active service.
Instead, surplus police vehicles and other property are transferred to the city’s Public Works Division, which handles the subsequent disposition or sale of the property.
In some cases, according to Bruley, city employees are permitted to purchase vehicles previously used by the police department.
That process means a vehicle formerly operated by Brooklyn Park police could potentially leave the department’s fleet without the police department itself being the seller.
But the chief stopped short of confirming that the vehicles now in Liberia were formerly part of Brooklyn Park’s police fleet.
That distinction is important.
Bruley’s account establishes how Brooklyn Park handles surplus police property, but it does not establish the ownership history of the Liberian vehicles or identify the person, company or institution that ultimately sold them.
The controversy intensified after allegations surfaced suggesting that the vehicles could have been linked to a drug trafficking network.
Coleman subsequently rejected that explanation and reportedly said the vehicles had instead been purchased from police authorities in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
His account appeared intended to establish a legitimate source for the vehicles and distance the Liberia National Police from the alleged drug cartel connection.
The statement from Brooklyn Park’s police chief, however, introduces a different layer to the dispute.
While Bruley confirms Coleman’s visit and the provision of used police equipment and uniforms, he says his department does not directly sell its retired vehicles.
The two accounts therefore differ over the nature of any vehicle transaction involving Liberia.
Neither account, standing alone, establishes that the vehicles in Liberia originated from Brooklyn Park’s police fleet.
What remains missing is the documentary trail.
Such records could include the original owner, sale documents, title or transfer records, the identity of any intermediary, purchase invoices and shipping documents showing how the vehicles moved from the United States to Liberia.
Until those records are produced, questions over the vehicles’ origin are likely to remain.
The Brooklyn Park Police Department’s position does not prove that the Liberian police obtained the vehicles improperly. Nor does it establish a connection between the vehicles and any alleged drug cartel.
What it does establish is that, according to the department responsible for the Brooklyn Park police fleet, the vehicles were not directly sold by that department to the Liberia National Police.
