The Cape Breton Regional Police Service (CBRPS) announcement of tenders for a new armoured SUV seems to have caused considerable controversy in local news outlets and on social media.
In fact, it may even have drawn more wide-spread public comment than the pre-Christmas news that area hospitals have the highest "unexpected" mortality rate in Canada for the third year in a row.
The regional police have had a second-hand Brinks truck around for years for the use of the Emergency Response Team. People do not give a second thought seeing commercial armoured security trucks driving around among banks and other businesses. Nor does the sight of heavy military equipment at the Victoria Park Garrison in Sydney strike fear into the populace.
From a more general viewpoint, the presence of millions of dollars in fire equipment mostly parked does not cause concern for obvious reasons. We are also long past the days of ambulances being a converted hearse driven by local funeral directors.
In the past few years at least nine municipal police officers and RCMP members have been shot in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, resulting in six deaths. Have people forgotten Const. Heidi Stevenson already? Heidi was the married mother of two children who was murdered in Hants Co. by a mass killer nearly a year ago.
The regional police are seeking an upgraded SUV, not a military armoured personnel carrier or battle tank. Many Cape Breton households have rifles and or shotguns stored somewhere. Various types of firearms are routinely found connected to the local drug trade and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality has its share of armed robberies, home invasions and occasional homicides. Bullets do not have a conscience and depending on several factors can be lethal at over a mile.
Unfortunately, it is not infrequent to have otherwise regular people become disturbed and barricade themselves in homes, etc., while armed. The CBRPS has resolved many armed incidents over the years without gunfire. An armoured vehicle is basic protection and can, in fact, serve to avoid violence and can aid in rescues. Some readers may recall the two Fredericton police officers who were killed in 2018 while trying to give aid to a young couple who had already been shot. Fredericton is about half the size of the CBRM.
Will this vehicle be routinely used? Of course not, but, like fire engines, when they are necessary they need to be available quickly. The nearest similar vehicles would require a response from the provincial RCMP team at least several hours away.
Not too many people would volunteer to confront an armed stranger with or without armour. The people who respond to these events deserve protection.
Blair Kasouf
Sydney Mines