SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 8/30/2014, pg. A4)
Due to an editor’s error, a story about several California cities jettisoning armored vehicles misspelled the name of the vehicle’s manufacturer. BAE Systems is the maker of the armored vehicle.
SAN JOSE — Amid a national furor over police militarization, the San Jose Police Department has decided to get rid of a 15-ton armored vehicle it received earlier this year from a federal military surplus program.
San Jose’s move comes right on the heels of similar plans by the city of Davis to jettison its mine-resistant, ambush-protected troop transport, or MRAP. Among the handful of other Bay Area agencies that own the hulking transports, Redwood City, South San Francisco and Antioch are standing by them.
In San Jose, the MRAP, designed to withstand improvised explosive devices used against U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been in an undisclosed storage garage in the city. It was being outfitted for street use when police brass — already facing criticism for their recent purchase of a drone — decided it wasn’t worth the potential damage to the department’s image and community relationships.
San Jose police spokeswoman Sgt. Heather Randol said internal department conversations about forfeiting the MRAP were already happening before the vehicles gained wide notoriety during the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, where local police deployed them for crowd control and sparked a national conversation over their use on American streets.
“We’ve been going through the analysis process,” Randol said. “It is a useful tool, but we realize it could be viewed by the community as the militarization of SJPD. It could create a divide, and we want the community’s trust.”
The decision to give back the vehicle is the second such move in Northern California this week: Tuesday night, the Davis City Council ordered their police chief to get rid of his department’s MRAP.
“Symbol matters. We are a species that uses symbol, and this symbolizes the most destructive force on the planet, which is the U.S. military,” Mayor Pro Tem Robb Davis said at the Davis council meeting.
He added “this piece of equipment, because of its powerful symbolism, will hurt” trust between police and residents.
Several agencies in the Bay Area have some form of armored transport, but only a handful have an MRAP, with San Jose the only Santa Clara County city to have one. The vehicle, standing about 10 feet tall, dwarfs most fortified vehicles used by police, such as the more commonly used Bearcat.
In addition to its size, the MRAP is designed to withstand the kinds of roadside bombs that killed scores of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. San Jose got the half-million dollar vehicle, manufactured by BAE Systems and known as a Caiman, for free through the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which donates surplus equipment to law-enforcement agencies.
“It was acquired to provide protection to our bomb unit members,” Randol said. “We are the regional bomb facility. We are a resource in the county and statewide.”
Micaela Davis, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, credited police leaders for the decision but took issue with how it came and went with little public oversight, echoing protests from the organization over the department’s acquisition, also earlier this year, of an unmanned aerial vehicle that is currently shelved pending the formation of a use policy and community input.
“The department should be commended for responding to concerns,” Davis said of San Jose. “But it brings up questions about whether it was needed in the first place. It’s why public hearings should be required on the front end.”
The pending return of the MRAP is unpopular with much of the rank and file at SJPD, who are backed by Sgt. Jim Unland, president of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association.
“This was politically expedient. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want the best equipment for your officers,” he said. “You can’t predict the hazards and dangers that will come in 10 or 20 years.”
He noted the integration of military equipment in police work is long-standing.
“Helicopters were primarily a military vehicle. So are AR’s (rifles), and so are the tactical vests and helmets we wear,” Unland said. “Those come from military usage, have been incorporated in law enforcement, and save lives. If there are issues of trust with the community, explain the use, and create a firm policy of when we can use it and when we can’t.”
But LaDoris Cordell, the city’s Independent Police Auditor and a retired judge, said community trust in police is threatened by the show of might that such an armored vehicle projects.
“SJPD, if it is to continue its efforts to build trust with the communities it serves, must not go down the path of militarization,” she said.
In Redwood City, spokesman Malcolm Smith said police leaders are keeping those sensitivities in mind as they write guidelines for the transport’s use, though it has already been rolled out for a major event — the city’s Fourth of July celebration.
South San Francisco says its MRAP has already come in handy.
“It has a horrible public perception, but in reality, this is designed just to protect the occupants,” said Lt. Michael Remedios, SWAT commander for the South San Francisco Police Department.
Remedios said the vehicle can bring police and emergency personnel closer to a hostile scene to give immediate help to victims without waiting for an area to be secured. He also highlighted its ability to traverse broken streets and downed power lines after a disaster.
He also contended that the imposing nature of the vehicle can prevent violence. On three occasions since his department got the MRAP in October, South San Francisco police used it to serve high-risk search warrants.
“It looks intimidating,” Remedios said. “If we roll out to an armed-and-dangerous person’s house, they’re less likely to engage police officers.”
Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.
