Law Enforcement Technology

APR 2014

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24 Law Enforcement Technology April 2014 www.officer.com SPECIALIZED VEHICLES O n a bitter cold, snowy Monday in December 2013 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin SWAT responded to a call of a barricaded subject armed with .50 caliber armor-piercing rounds. The suspect had already opened fire on initial responding officers as they arrived. Earlier in the day the subject was suspected of having lit a family home on fire before fleeing to this second location, a multi-family apartment com- plex. Now SWAT—Crisis Negotiations initiated telephone contact with the suspect while other officers gathered information. They determined the sus- pect was in possession of a stockpile of ammunition, ballistic shields and vests; and more firearms. Furthermore, over the course of a several-hour standoff it became known that four innocent civil- ians were inside the complex. Officer Ben Colwin was tasked with developing a plan to get them out with- out alerting the suspect. "I recognized that the only way we were going to be able to safely extract the citizens was if we approached from the west side of the building. This was the only side that the suspect could not see us approach from," recalled Colwin. On the west side of the yard was a very steep, icy embankment that might otherwise pose a challenge to a smooth rescue. In a stroke of good timing, per- haps, the agency had acquired its first armored vehicle, thanks to the generosity of the local Joe and Dawn Colwin Family Foundation. The man- ufacturer had thrown in a tire upgrade for good measure. "One of our motivations [in pur- chasing the vehicle] was to have it as an immediate response vehicle and our team did just that; they had it on scene in short-order," says Fond du Lac Police Chief William Lamb. The SWAT team used two other vehicles to help maintain the integrity New armored units shield responders, travel tough terrain and get survivors out of harmÕs way evolves SWAT vehicle The By Sara Scullin Fort Pierce (Florida) Police obtained a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in October 2013. Photos courtesy of Fort Pierce (Florida) Police Department LET_24-28_CoverArmoredVehicles0414.indd 24 3/20/14 2:04 PM

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