Combining local relief efforts, two Ames Police officers left for Springfield, Ill., on Wednesday night with a truck of supplies destined for New Orleans law enforcement officers displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Two weeks ago, Ames Police began a local relief effort and contacted agencies around the state to find supplies for a police department affected by the storms. Now, Sgt. Jeff Brinkley and Officer Allen Lavender are driving supplies to Illinois, where the items will be picked up and transported to a tactical team in New Orleans.

“We’re still a little bit frustrated because we haven’t been able to do anything, and we didn’t want to go through a secondary service. We were trying to avoid the red tape of a middleman agency like FEMA and the Red Cross,” Brinkley said.

After trying to phone Capt. Jeff Winn, commander of the New Orleans Police Department’s 1st District, who he met at a training school, Brinkley was finally able to talk to Winn and see how Ames Police could help, he said.

“His team is working and living out of an elementary school. A lot of other officers are living on a cruise ship, but because of the tactical team’s type of weapons, they weren’t allowed on the ship,” he said.

Brinkley said besides collecting food, police have also collected about 110 sets of body armor and work-out equipment to send to the officers, because much of their equipment was lost.

Brinkley and Lavender are meeting personnel from the Regional Counter Drug Training Academy, located in Meridian, Miss., Brinkley said.

“The academy’s director is from Iowa and when he found out what we were doing, he wanted to help,” he said.

“They’ll be bringing up a truck and taking the supplies directly to New Orleans.”

Davenport Police donated 72 vests, and the Britt and Garner police departments donated 10 vests; Ankeny Police, Holy Trinity Lutheran in Ankeny and the Story County Attorney’s Office also donated supplies.

The truck they drove is owned by Ames Realtor Tom Randall, whose co-worker’s husband is an Ames Police officer.

“We just wanted to do what we could,” Randall said.

“When they approached us to help with police department affected by hurricanes, we thought it was a great chance to represent our community outreach.”