Bloomington is purchasing a BearCat Rescue Vehicle for its SWAT team despite concerns some in the community have that adding such a vehicle to the city’s fleet is militarizing the police force.
The vehicle could be used in situations involving armed barricades with hostages, armed robberies and other hostile, deadly and dangerous situations. It could be used not only to put SWAT team members in position but also to get hostages or innocent civilians out of a hostile area.
Former Council member De Urban asked the Bloomington City Council to approve purchasing the vehicle saying the vehicle is something the city needs in its toolbox much like one would put certain items in a First Aid Kit at home.
The cost is $249,229.
Urban pointed out that one of the main uses for the vehicle is for rescues.
“If we get a 100-year snow and somebody had a heart attack, and they can’t get to them, they could take that vehicle and get through and get those people out,” said Urban.
Urban felt a need to caution against people thinking of the vehicle as “knocking down the door, trampling over people’s rights or any kind of thing like that.”
Council member Mollie Ward, who had previously written Police Chief Jamal Simington asking questions that he responded to asked Simington to share those questions and answers during the August 14 council meeting.
Simington said there were five instances in 2022 and six so far this year where the city could have used this type of vehicle.
“For instance the Illinois State Police dealt with an individual who shot and murdered an officer in Rockford, Illinois and traveled down I-55,” said Simington. “That individual was responsible for felonies that occurred here in this community. If we would have had that vehicle at the ready it would have helped there.”
During the meeting Simington said that the vehicle would only be used when a suspected offender was armed.
He also said the vehicle could be used in flooding situations where motorists may be stranded in flood waters to rescue them.
Ward said that the vehicle was an armored vehicle–not an armed vehicle– and that the vehicle was not a tank.
Simington said that the vehicle will also only be utilized in accordance with rules that the police department must abide by.
Left-wing council member Cody Hendricks said that Simington had met with the NAACP, Not in Out Town, and Black Lives Matter regarding the purchase of this vehicle.
“Of course there is apprehension,” said Simington. “Once we went through the deliberate sharing of what the intent is, how this vehicle can make this community safer, and tried to answer all of those questions or concerns, I walked away from the table with some positive responses and some support.”
Council member Donna Boelen mentioned should the Bloomington Police Department ever have to deal with a shooter with a high-capacity weapon the vehicle would be particularly useful.
Currently the Bloomington Police Department does not own an armored vehicle.
The council approved the purchase six to two with Jenna Kearns and Tom Crumpler dissenting. Council member John Danenberger was absent.
