Halifax police launch push for armoured rescue vehicle

Halifax Regional Police are on the hunt for an Armoured Rescue Vehicle, according to a presentation that will be delivered to the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners on Monday.

Police say that an Armoured Rescue Vehicle (ARV) would help them address the ever-changing number of issues they encounter while providing a “level of safety” for officers and the public.

“It is critical to have capability to respond in a tactical and prepared way,” the presentation reads.

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READ MORE: Nova Scotia town looks to off-load armoured vehicle donated by former defence minister

Halifax police provide two examples of ARVs currently in use as examples of what they are looking for — one is currently in use by the Halton Regional Police Service and the other is in use by police in Fredericton.

There are no cost estimates listed in the presentation but a vehicle recently purchased by the Calgary Police Service carried with it a price tag of more than $500,000.

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Police stress that an ARV would not be equipped with weaponry or “aggressive equipment.”

Police departments in Atlantic Canada have had a mixed response to deploying ARVs.

Last April saw the Fredericton Police Force unveil their armoured vehicle, which came with a six-year lease at the cost of approximately $57,000 per year. The vehicle is used by Fredericton’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) and has been deployed on multiple occasions.

The vehicle was also deployed in August 2018, during the fatal shooting of two Fredericton police constables Sara Burns and Robb Costello, and civilians Donnie Robichaud and Bobbie Lee Wright.

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But the police force of New Glasgow, N.S., decided to give away their armoured vehicle only four years after the surplus military vehicle was provided to the town free of charge by the Canadian military.

The town’s police chief told The Canadian Press in 2017, that the 10-tonne light-armoured vehicle — complete with a rotating turret — was never really put to good use.

The Board of Police Commissioner is set to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Monday at Halifax City Hall.