This article was previously published on GuelphToday.
Guelph police has a new tool to use in high risk situations in the community.
An armoured patrol vehicle was unveiled to media members on Thursday.
The “community rescue vehicle,” as it’s being called by police, was deemed ready to deploy earlier this week, but has not been needed as of yet.
“What this is designed to do is to provide our officers with some risk mitigation at those incidents where there’s a significant threat of violence, or where we may encounter firearms,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Davis.
He said it’ll be used in “high risk, low frequency” situations.
The vehicle itself is a 2005 Ford-based Gurkha LAPV (light armored patrol vehicle), which was built by Terradyne Armoured Vehicles.
It was purchased used for $20,000 from Waterloo Regional Police Service. Davis said for comparison, a new version (depending on the brand) could run up to $650,000.
“The vehicle itself is not armed,” Davis said. “Our officers – the tactical members – will only carry their normal outfit of equipment when they’re deploying from the vehicle. But it gives us time where officers could be in here, in a position of safety to formulate plans.”
He said if a scenario came up where a citizen or officer rescue was needed, it can be used as a place of safety.
It’s not expected to be used in proactive situations.
Police officials say the need for this type of equipment has been identified for several years.
“Frequently, when we encounter these high risk situations, the first things that we do when we approach scenes are to set up containment, and we try to do that through areas of cover and concealment,” Davis said. “The best we could do before was perhaps to use items that were already at the scene.
“Now when we have those types of situations, we’ll be able to deploy this and officers can now provide that cover, that concealment directly from here with a high level of protection.”
Over the last few years, Davis said at least 30 high risk warrants have been executed by the tactics and rescue team.
He later emphasized Guelph remains a very safe community, but it’s just a reality that officers are facing these types of situations more frequently.
Police chief Gord Cobey said in a news release calls involving firearms are becoming more commonplace, and the vehicle will be “an invaluable resource to our citizens and our members” on those rare occasions it’ll be needed.
There are 14 members on the tactics team, and each of them will be able to operate the vehicle.
It’s not specifically known how many years of service police can get out of the vehicle.
Davis expects they’ll be able to get “several years” of use before they’ll do “a fulsome assessment of the benefits that it offers to our members and our community.”
