VicPD's military vehicle

This is a short post to reiterate that, according to VicPD, nobody knows how many times their $320,000 armoured vehicle has been used since they bought it back in 2017. They also don’t know who used it, or for what purpose.

The Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (incl. VicPD, Saanich, Oak Bay and Central Saanich PDs) paid for this thing. In June I asked VicPD for a list of the times it’s been used and the type of use, including community events where they like to show it off.

VicPD responded in record time, because they had nothing to share. After GVERT paid for a $320,000 tank, nobody kept track of what was done with it: “Please be advised that the deployment of the Armored Rescue Vehicle is not tracked by the Victoria Police Department or GVERT.”

At the July police board meeting, Mayor Helps said she’d received complaints about the vehicle, and board member Sean Dhillon asked how many times it had been used in 2019. VicPD said they didn’t have exact numbers but would start tracking it. Oh okay.

VicPD also said the use of military equipment doesn’t mean they're militarized. But it’s literally a Terradyne vehicle? The same company Canada contracted to sell to Saudi Arabia, where they're used to kill people? But don’t say they’re militarized!

The same officer also said VicPD primarily uses the vehicle to “enhance communication” and to protect mental health professionals. Terradyne armoured vehicles: another fine mental health initiative from VicPD.

To be clear, if VicPD accounted for every time they used the vehicle and what events they’d taken it to, that wouldn’t make it acceptable. It is telling that VicPD and co. were confident they would never have to justify spending hundreds of thousands on literal military equipment.

Follow-up, June 18, 2021: Last year I asked VicPD how many times police used their Terradyne armoured vehicle and for what purpose. Or for any logs that would show its use. They responded in June 2020 to say nobody was tracking the use of the $320,000 vehicle.

At the July 2020 police board meeting Mayor Helps said she’d had complaints about the vehicle, and another board member asked how often it was used. VicPD said they didn’t have “exact numbers,” but they would “have the team start tracking.”

The update is: the team did not start tracking. I asked for tracking VicPD had done between that board meeting and May of this year, and I received this response back today: “The Victoria Police Department does not maintain records on the deployment of the armoured vehicle.”

Local police departments including VicPD spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this thing, but according to VicPD they don’t bother noting how often they use it or what they use it for, even after they told their bosses they would start keeping track.

Where’s the vehicle now? Who knows! Not VicPD, apparently. Tracking how VicPD uses its military equipment wouldn’t make its use acceptable, but it’s revealing they can’t be bothered, even after telling their bosses they would. They were tweeting about accountability the other day.

Last year's pledge to start tracking came a bit after the 45-minute mark of the July 2020 meeting. There was quite the speech beforehand about how 'using military equipment doesn't mean we're militarized,' the vehicle is about 'enhanced communication,' etc.