Gebhardt 1

CJ Gebhardt
Professor Nathan Cole
ENGL 2010
16 November 2015
Position Paper
Military Vehicles in Our Own Backyard
The goal, for any officer, is to keep civilians and themselves safe. So when a situation turns
deadly or turns deadly quickly, the officers call in the SWAT team. The SWAT team would normally
arrive in a Lenco BEAR. Figure 1 shows a standard SWAT vehicle.

Figure 1

However, SWAT teams around the United States are being given MRAPs, or a military grade vehicle.
Figure 2 shows a standard MRAP.

Figure 2

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They are decommissioned vehicles, so they don't have any of the high power lethal weapons, but they
still have the look and the military grade structure. The military is practically giving away MRAPs to
any city, county and state police departments and yet they pose a giant risk. The MRAPs could scare
civilians/kids or worse, trigger PTSD, they have many flaws and they also could make hostage
situations worse.
According to marines.com, the MRAP is also known as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected
Vehicle (marines.com). The MRAP has a V-shaped hull, raised chassis and armored plating and is
said to be the single most effective counter to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) (marines.com).
So why are police departments receiving military vehicles? Because the war in Afghanistan was
shutting down and the MRAPs were surplus. As policeone.com said in the article The hidden hazards
of MRAPs ,[m]any of these vehicles are being picked up by local law enforcement agencies to serve
as tactical personnel carriers through their states 1033 program (Tim Dees). The 1033 program, as
described by dispositionservices.dla.mil, was when [c]ongress authorized the transfer of excess DOD
personal property to federal and state agencies for use in counter-drug activities (Frequently Asked
Questions).
Here in Utah, citizens are no strangers to military vehicles going down any public road. With
Camp Williams, Dugway Proving Grounds, and the Utah Test and Training Range so close to people, it
is no wonder why people always see military personnel driving military vehicles. But seeing a military
vehicle arrive at a crime scene is traumatizing to some kids. If a child, teenager, or anyone for that
matter lost a family member in the military seeing an MRAP appear on a scene is not going to help the
situation, it is going to make it worse. The parents will want to grab their kids and pull them away
from the area. The kids aren't going to understand why, they just notice the MRAP so they end up
meshing the MRAP with something bad. The kids are taught, not on purpose, that MRAPs are
synonymous with bad things.

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An even worse idea is a veteran seeing an MRAP driving down the road. This could trigger
their PTSD. In a blog written by My PTSD Hell as a way to deal with his PTSD, Andy wrote about
how seeing an MRAP triggered these flashbacks of mine. PTSD is an acronym for Post traumatic
Stress Disorder and can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is
something terrible and scary that you see, hear about, or that happens to you
(http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/what-is-ptsd.asp ). A veteran seeing the MRAP
drive down the road will set off his/her PTSD. People are trying to heal the veterans, not make them
worse by having decommissioned military vehicles drive down the road (see Figure 3). It's not like
these vehicles are being disguised. The police departments are putting letters on the sides and leaving
the overall feel of military on the vehicles.

Figure 3

The MRAPs have many flaws. The Humvee, the original SWAT vehicle of choice, costs about
$150,000 to make per unit. The MRAP on the other hand costs $500,000 per unit. That's half a million
dollars. (Associated Press). When the military surplus runs out, the departments will probably try and
buy the supplies needed to make a MRAP. This will literally cost the people millions. Another flaw of
the MRAP is the gas mileage. The MRAP could have some cost of retrofitting [the MRAP] for
civilian use and fueling the 36,000-pound behemoths that get about 5 miles to the gallon

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(Associated Press). Talk about a low gas mileage. [took out a sentence]
When we see the SWAT team on the news, it is because they were responding to an active
shooter or a hostage situation. What we didn't know was how often that actually happened. According
to the article Data show that in Utah, SWAT-style tactics are overwhelmingly used to serve drug
warrants on washingtonpost.com, only 83 percent of the incidents reported were to serve search
warrants for drug crimes and only 3% were for the hostage or active shooter responses (Radley
Balko). So what the public sees are rare events in a SWAT members shift. If the SWAT team mostly
responds to drug warrants, imagine a MRAP showing up outside somebodys house instead of the
Lenco BEAR. The military vehicle is going to stand out in the crowd of Lenco BEAR vehicles. [took
out a sentence] Seeing the military vehicle park outside the barricaded house, the active shooter or
suspect is going to get more tense. All they know is that a military vehicle, the MRAP is outside their
house. For what its worth, they think that the military has been called in. This could cause the suspect
to shoot or harm the hostages or him/herself.
As a plus side, though, to the MRAPs, they do protect the officers. The officers are trying to
protect themselves and the public. Today, most gun owners own high powered or close to high
powered guns. These guns are not to be taken lightly. The point of the MRAPs is so that officers stay
safe. Chris Gebhardt, a 15 year veteran of Maryland Police Department and a former SWAT
commander, had an interview with Libertas Institute about the militarization of police departments. He
said that the use of the APC actually saves lives and results in less violent confrontations. Is it a 100%
solution? Of course not, nothing is (paragraph 27). The MRAPs are to protect those who are
protecting us. The MRAPs could also show that the officers are taking steps to modernize themselves
as times progress.
The MRAPs are a danger to society. The could scare children, trigger PTSD, they cost too
much, and they make hostage situations worse. Many concerned citizens feel this way. So by just

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saying no to the MRAPs, police departments can save themselves the heartache of dealing with
unhappy citizens. The Humvees/Lenco Bear is a suitable vehicle for SWAT. Why fix a problem that
doesn't need fixing? The answer is simple. It's because the MRAPs are free and this is America.

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Works Cited
Andy. "The MRAP." My PTSD Hell. N.p., 20 July 2015. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
<https://myptsdhell.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/the-mrap/>.
Associated Press. "Leftover Armored Trucks from Iraq Coming to Local Police Agencies." Daily News.
N.p., 24 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/policesurplus-armored-trucks-iraq-article-1.1527650>.
Balko, Radley. "Data Show That in Utah, SWAT-style Tactics Are Overwhelmingly Used to Serve Drug
Warrants." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
Dees, Tim. "The Hidden Hazards of MRAPs." PoliceOne. 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
"Former SWAT Commander Speaks Out on Police Militarization, the War on Drugs, and Civil Liberties
| Libertas Institute." Libertas Institute Advancing the Cause of Liberty in Utah RSS. Libertas
Institute, 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Lardner, Richard, and Matt Ford. "The Pros and Cons of the Newest Mine Resistant Vehicle to Hit
Iraq." Associated Press. Associated Press, 2008. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
<http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/wdc/mrap/mrapvhumvee.swf>.
Lenco Armored Vehicles. Bear_specs. Digital image. Lenco Armor. N.p., 2013. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.lencoarmor.com/military/bear-variants/bear/>.
Marine Corps MRAP Vehicle." Marines.com. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
McNally, Cpl. Kyle. Sand Colored MRAP in a Desert. Digital image. Defense Update. N.p., 2012.
Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://defense-update.com/20120604_where-are-the-mrapgoing.html#.VlPXJnarSUl>.
Sand colored MRAP with POLICE written down the side. Digital image.Texarkana Gazette. N.p., 18
May 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2014/05/18/surplusmraps-put-to-use-in-texarkana-ot-740274.php>.

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United States of America. Defense Logistics Agency. DLA Disposition Services. Defense Logistics
Agency. US Department of Defense, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.dla.mil/DispositionServices/Offers/Reutilization/LawEnforcement/ProgramFAQs.aspx>.
US Department of Veterans Affairs. "What Is PTSD?" PTSD: National Center for PTSD. US
Department of Veterans Affairs, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/what-is-ptsd.asp>.