Police Armor

[philp]

My daughter was in a fashion show at the Utah Safety Fair Friday night so I got a chance to wander around.  Some interesting stuff including several displays of vehicles from the local Police Depts.

One caught my eye in particular, a police M-113.  I talked to on of the officers manning the table and he said they had done some maneuvers in it but had not had to use it in action.  He also stated that the Murray PD had used theirs for real.

Last thing he mentioned was that it is a little hot inside.  The ride was OK but not for the driver.





Couple other pics  here.

So, anyone else got pics of some Police Armor?  

[upnorth]

Kind of a sad statement on society when the police need something that heavy.

Some of the police here in the Czech Republic walk their beats in sort of a paramilitary, light tactical, combat type uniform. Its all black and quite imposing, it has that "P*ss me off, I dare you" look to it. Other police walk around in a much more typical police uniform. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two types of officers though.

[Wyrmshadow]

Hehe, I like the Autobots logo on the bottom.

[PanzerWulff]

These are the only 2 pics I have I downloaded them for a Hostage Rescue Team based roleplaying campaign I was running.the first is a Bulldog 1 SWAT van

The second is a smaller version called the PitBull

Yes I admit I'm a RPG GEEK as well as a Whiffing Fool.Heck years ago I built a Leopard II with a black and white police paintjob and added blinking LED's and used dry transfer lettering to spell out "Armored PD" on the skirts unfortunatly it was destroyed in one of my moves,but I would like to try it again someday

[Son of Damian]

Did they buy it, or did they get it free from the Army during one of there surplus equipment give aways?  

[Jennings]

I've always wanted to build the glossy USAF Blue M-20 Grayhound armored car that featured in the flightline scenes of "Strategic Air Command" with Jimmy Steward & June Allison.  

J

[cthulhu77]

Hehe, I like the Autobots logo on the bottom.

That is pure genius !   I don't know about living somewhere that requires the use of combat vehicles, though.

[rallymodeller]

The Detroit PD has at least one Cadillac-Gage Commando V-150 -- saw one on I-94 once. It's also been shown on A&E in their "Detroit SWAT" show. The main thing they use them for is in barricade situations in order to get close to the subject without exposing the officers to danger, or during riots and so forth.

As far as living somewhere where such a thing is necessary, consider: cthulu77, I can almost guarantee that you DO live in a place where the police have such vehicles. You just haven't seen them yet. Iin the US the law makes it difficult for the Army to operate even in conjunction with the police except in times of dire crisis -- the "Posse Comitatus" law. It is far easier for the police to have their own assets such as M113's or V-100's for riot situations and suchlike than to have to ask for Army help. Many nations are much more able to place the military under police jurisdiction -- in fact many nations have military (or paramilitary police) that interact daily with the public (Italy and Germany for example) and are considered part of the national military force structure. The US (and Canada for that matter) has no such force -- thus in many cases the local police departments must field SWAT units to fill many of the roles that a paramilitary national police force can do in other nations. Thus some big cities have vehicles like M113's and V150's. More usually however the armoured cars fielded by such forces are more akin to the Bulldog and Pit Bull that PanzerWulff posted pictures of, and these are basically the type of thing that Securicor and Brinks use to transport money to and from banks.

[anthonyp]

The Detroit PD has at least one Cadillac-Gage Commando V-150 -- saw one on I-94 once. It's also been shown on A&E in their "Detroit SWAT" show. The main thing they use them for is in barricade situations in order to get close to the subject without exposing the officers to danger, or during riots and so forth.

Detroit only had one armoured car, and it was replaced about a year or two ago by one of GPV's (in New Haven, MI.) armoured vehicles.  I have a cousin that works there, and he's said a few of their armoured vehicles are in service with police forces around the nation, including Detroit and Knoxville.

General Purpose Vehicles

Detroit's either got a "Sergeant" or a 4x4x4 now.

[cthulhu77]

Rally, oh, I'm sure our infamous "Sherrif Joe" has at least three, probably TOW capable too...heck, I don't want to live in AZ much anymore...it's become way too right wing for the likes of this old anarchist.  We have the Minutemen down south, shooting immigrants (ten dead last month), armed border guards (I'm sure they have a few armored cars, etc) and checkpoints where they get to go through everything you own.  We used to go camping a lot, now, most of us are just too damn scared to head out to the mountains...it isn't worth the confrontation.

[dragon]

Hehe, I like the Autobots logo on the bottom.

That is pure genius !   I don't know about living somewhere that requires the use of combat vehicles, though.

During the 1980s Los Angeles Police had an APC of some kind (I don't remember if it was an M-113 or one of the Cadillac Gage vehicles) that was intended for use against the armored doors of crack houses of that era, hence it was named Batter Ram (I remember there was even a Rap song about it at the time).  The interesting thing about it is that the Batter Ram proper had on the part facing the crack house as it approaches the door, a large smiley face sticker with the caption underneath it of "Have a Nice Day!".  I wonder if pictures exist from that time period. B)    

[philp]

I don't know about living somewhere that requires the use of combat vehicles, though.

I hear that but just last week we had an incident that brings real life right to your living room.  An 18yr old kid started walking through one of the malls here (Trolley Square) and killed 5 before being taken out by the SLPD.  Still no reason why he did this as the victims were random, just whoever he ran into.  An off duty officer was having a Valentines dinner with his wife and they were just leaving the restuarant when he heard the shooting.  He sent his wife back in to call 911 and then went to engage the gunman.  Witnesses say he stopped anyone else from being killed until the SWAT team and other cops made it on site.

Worst part is my daughters acting school is in that mall and we usually are there once a week for class.  

[cthulhu77]

Yep, it is a sad day when we have to put up with all of this violence just to able to work, raise a family, and make some models in the spare time...

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Hehe, I like the Autobots logo on the bottom.

That is pure genius !   I don't know about living somewhere that requires the use of combat vehicles, though.

During the 1980s Los Angeles Police had an APC of some kind (I don't remember if it was an M-113 or one of the Cadillac Gage vehicles) that was intended for use against the armored doors of crack houses of that era, hence it was named Batter Ram (I remember there was even a Rap song about it at the time).  The interesting thing about it is that the Batter Ram proper had on the part facing the crack house as it approaches the door, a large smiley face sticker with the caption underneath it of "Have a Nice Day!".  I wonder if pictures exist from that time period. B)  

The LAPD armored vehicle that was used in "Dragnet" with Dan Aykroyd as Sergeant Joe Friday and Tom Hanks as Detective Pep Streebeck was an M114 Armored Command & Reconnaisance Vehicle that was produced for the Army in the early 60s.  Link to Wikipedia article on the M114

Neat vehicle until you realize that it was powered by a 283 CI Chevrolet gasoline engine and all of the fuel (100 gallons) was located in the left front side of the vehicle next to the driver which ensured that you had at least one major burn victim if the vehicle was hit on that quarter.  

The Autobots logo is a nice touch on that M113.  Good to see that they have a sense of humour.

[Jschmus]

Hehe, I like the Autobots logo on the bottom.

That is pure genius !   I don't know about living somewhere that requires the use of combat vehicles, though.

During the 1980s Los Angeles Police had an APC of some kind (I don't remember if it was an M-113 or one of the Cadillac Gage vehicles) that was intended for use against the armored doors of crack houses of that era, hence it was named Batter Ram (I remember there was even a Rap song about it at the time).  The interesting thing about it is that the Batter Ram proper had on the part facing the crack house as it approaches the door, a large smiley face sticker with the caption underneath it of "Have a Nice Day!".  I wonder if pictures exist from that time period. B)  

I found an LA Times article about that.  The LAPD used to operate a pair of V-100s, but in 2003 they "traded up" to a Lenco Bear, which looks like one of the vehicles depicted above.  The article said a vehicle that looked more like a truck was considered to be more "friendly-looking" than the militant V-100.