A seven-ton armored vehicle will be under the care of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office following the county’s Tuesday acceptance of a $500,000 federal grant for the tactical machine. The Missoula County Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the Department of Homeland Security grant to pay for a Rook, a vehicle manufactured by Florida-based Ring Power Corporation. Missoula County Undersheriff Jeremy Meeder said the vehicle will be used by local law enforcement to respond to standoffs when a suspect is barricaded inside a building. Resembling a cross between a tank and a massive forklift, the vehicle also includes a hydraulic battering ram and a “grapple claw” that can tear into the side of a structure. Unlike the BearCat armored vehicle the county already uses, he said it allows officers to get closer to the building and a shielded lift can allow them to access second and third stories of buildings.
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Law enforcement officers maneuver a Rook vehicle behind a housing complex in Hempfield, Pennsylvania, in this 2015 file photo. “The more options we have, the more we can serve the public,” Meeder said in an interview after the commissioners’ vote. “At the end of the day we just want them to give up and stop their shenanigans.” The Rook will also give local SWAT teams and other responders the ability to remotely fire CS gas canisters into a building to get a suspect to come out, he said. According to
a company brochure , the vehicle also comes equipped with wireless video cameras, a “vehicle extraction tool,” bulletproof glass and armor that can stop a .30 armor-piercing rifle round. The remotely operated battering ram can push open a door to “take an element of control away” from the suspect and make it more likely they’ll give themselves up, Meeder said. Local SWAT teams currently use a BearCat to communicate with suspects during a standoff, but Meeder said the new vehicle will allow officers to get much closer, and the caterpillar treads will do less damage to property, like underground septic systems.
Law enforcement officers use a vehicle called a Rook as they move it along a street in front of a housing complex in Hempfield, Pennsylvania, in this 2015 file photo. Under the grant, which is administered by the state, the federal government will own the vehicle for a number of years, after which it will become county property, Meeder said. The county is on the hook for maintenance costs. The Sheriff’s Office expects it will take around nine months or so before the new Rook arrives in Missoula. Company representees will then train local law enforcement agencies to use the vehicle. He told commissioners during their Tuesday morning meeting that it will be available to serve law enforcement teams across western Montana, while Billings is working to acquire one that will serve the other side of the state.
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