DuPage sheriff's office buying a new armored vehicle, but hold the battering ram
The DuPage County sheriff's office is ordering a new armored vehicle, but it's not sticking with the standard model.
County board members on Tuesday approved spending $315,857 to purchase a BearCat vehicle from Lenco Industries for the sheriff's department and a DuPage law enforcement task force.
"We're having it custom-built," Sheriff James Mendrick said.
Municipal departments also could use the rig through requests to the Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigation Team, or MERIT, a group formed in 2019 to share police resources.
"The front of these typically come with a battering ram, and the chiefs and I decided, well, we don't really need a battering ram in DuPage County," Mendrick said.
"We don't believe that's a device that we would use very often."
Their design specifications: Replace the battering ram with a winch capable of clearing roads of fallen trees in the wake of storms.
"We wanted to move away from a more militaristic type of vehicle," Mendrick said. "We want one that's good for our police environment here in DuPage County."
Police agencies have traditionally acquired military gear and equipment through a federal surplus program. Critics have said the program has contributed to the militarization of police departments, but such concerns weren't raised at county board meetings.
"It's an emergency vehicle for support for police, but what it ends up getting used for more than anything is search and rescue," Mendrick said.
When heavy rains inundate some of the lowest-lying areas in DuPage, flooding leaves streets impassible around apartment buildings near Lisle and neighborhoods near Glen Ellyn. Mendrick said the vehicle could get through floodwaters and help rescue residents.
Another armored vehicle similar to the new BearCat is assigned only to the sheriff's office, officials wrote in a county memo, because it's owned by the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, a coalition of police agencies.
That vehicle could be "deployed at any moment anywhere in the state."
The new BearCat, though, will be grounded in DuPage. The county board last month approved a new budget that allocates surplus sales tax dollars to the purchase of the armored vehicle as well as a new mobile command center.
"This is extremely important and critical to our law enforcement to be able to do what we expect of them," DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin said at the time.
The vehicle is expected to be delivered from the Massachusetts-based manufacturer later this year.
"Again, we're having parts modified that will better serve a suburban environment versus a military environment," Mendrick said.
Municipal departments can request MERIT for crisis negotiations, SWAT, major crash reconstruction, planned events, crime scene investigation, computer forensics and other operations, except routine calls. The task force has responded to more than 550 emergencies since Aug. 1, 2019, Mendrick said.
"It supports every corner, every municipality, every inch of DuPage County, all 336 square miles," he said.