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HEMET: Most of the funds for $270,000 car covered by grant from Homeland Security.
The Hemet Police Department is buying a $270,000 police car.
Well, not exactly.
The department is buying an armored personnel carrier designed to get a lot of officers into a crime scene without getting shot.
“The main function of this vehicle is to protect our officers going into a hot zone,” Capt. Dave Brown said.
It has neither weapons nor a ram, said Chief Richard Dana.
“It will move people into an area. It will protect them,” he said.
Police Capt. Dean Evans estimated the vehicle can carry as many as 16 officers in safety, if not in comfort.
Most of the time it would probably carry between six and eight officers, Evans said.
Most of the cost will be covered by a Homeland Security grant. The remainder will be paid with money confiscated from drug dealers and other criminals.
Brown said the armored vehicle will replace an earlier model that is essentially a modified armored truck.
It was donated to the department shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
It had 265,000 miles on it at the time and now has 285,000 miles on it.
“It’s ready to retire,” Brown said.
In addition to protecting officers called on for a hostage or a barricaded suspect or similar situation, Brown said the armored vehicle will allow the department to use tactics under such circumstances that would otherwise not be available.
One such tactic would be to shoot from the vehicle, which has both gun ports and a roof hatch, but Brown said that would happen only under extraordinary and tightly controlled circumstances.
Evans said the vehicle will be one of only five in Riverside County. Two of them are owned by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
“Armored vehicles have become a fixture nationwide,” said Brown, “because of the firepower we’re facing.
While the existing vehicle would stop many types of rounds, the new one will stop even a .50 caliber armor piercing bullet, Brown said.
The armored car is being custom built for the department and should be ready for delivery in September or October.
Brown said a team of six people developed the criteria after visiting other agencies and going over available options.
Once the vehicle is here, it will become a regional asset with any department from the Pass Area to Murrieta able to call on it in an emergency. The lack of a similar vehicle in the region was one of the reasons Hemet got the grant to buy this one.
Hemet and Murrieta operate a joint special tactics unit.
Filed under: Military Industrial Complex, Prison Industrial Complex, Riverside County, Riverside Sheriff | Tagged: Dave Brown said., Dean Evans, DHS, Hemet, Hemet Police Department, Murrieta, Richard Dana, Riverside County Sheriff's Department
I just saw it with ‘City of Hemet’ on it on the Mass Pike, a drab olive one was in tow behind it. Nice hardware – it certainly looks to keep the occupants safe
we now have it. it is very impressive. and it does have a ram. no winch, though. we may install one. Hemet is going through a budget crisis now, as is most of the country. when the public sees this thing, there will be all kinds of money-spending accusations. then it wil be explained that this was not paid for by the city of Hemet, but with Federal grant money. some people will still not be happy. oh well, at least we now have some protection from the increasing firepower of the indians, or native Americans, as well as the rest of the gang-banging scum which is trying to take over this area.