Alaska News

Alaska State Troopers get intimidating new armored-response vehicles

The Alaska State Troopers -- and some of their local counterparts -- now have three big new tools in their law-enforcement toolbox. On Thursday, the troopers unveiled their latest acquisition, three Lenco Bearcat armored personnel carriers, hulking vehicles weighing about 8 tons and capable of carrying up to 10 people into high-risk situations.

Costing more than $280,000 apiece, the three new Tactical Response Vehicles -- as troopers are referring to them -- are getting ready to be deployed to supplement troopers and police officers in Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Soldotna. Once there, they'll be used in situations where there is a risk to law enforcement personnel or civilians in scenarios such as hostage situations or when a suspect has made threats of violence against others.

Troopers say they've wanted the vehicles for a long time and that other agencies around the country have deployed similar equipment.

"We kind of want to take the mystery out of these right away," said Capt. Randy Hahn, who works with the troopers' Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT). "They've been in use across the nation for many, many years."

Asked for a recent example of when one of the new vehicles could have been useful, Hahn said that a call came in to troopers on Wednesday and a woman said she'd been assaulted by her boyfriend and that he'd threatened to shoot law enforcement if they came to intervene. Though that wasn't what ended up happening, Hahn cited that as one case where the Bearcat could have been deployed.

Until now, Hahn said, officers have had to rely on ducking behind their vehicles or finding other means to protect themselves in confrontations. He also mentioned the June 2012 incident in which Arvin Nelson, Jr. wounded two troopers before killing himself in Kotzebue.

In that incident, Hahn said that troopers had to call in a dump truck from the city to use for cover. The new vehicles, he said, can be transported wherever a cargo plane can fly.

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Though the vehicles are very heavy and large enough to accommodate between eight and 10 law enforcement personnel, depending on how they're equipped, the Bearcats "drive surprisingly well for a large vehicle," Hahn said. He's already given one a test drive.

The vehicles were paid for with money reappropriated from grants originally intended for other purposes, including efforts to stem methamphetamine manufacture in the state, troopers said. They said they were able to save the more than $858,000 by careful cost-cutting that allowed them to put the necessary money aside and redirect it toward the new vehicles.

The vehicles will be deployed to their destinations next week, troopers said.

Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com

Ben Anderson

Ben Anderson is a former writer and editor for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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