Gear built for war rests with Greeley lawmen
Matte-black, 10 feet tall and encased in armor so thick knocks don't echo in its hollow interior, the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle sits so heavy that steel plates are needed to keep the asphalt from cracking under its tires.Designed for war, the machine now bears the dull-gold inscription of "Police Rescue and Greeley Police Department SWAT."
"We don't use it to go knock on doors or anything," Greeley PD spokesman Sgt. J.P. Tymkowych said, walking toward its steel-plated parking space at the police station.
Since the department acquired the vehicle from the Department of Defense through its 1033 military surplus program in November, Tymkowych knows of one time it has been deployed: to serve a warrant at a house with "lots of intelligence that people had some pretty serious weapons inside."
Otherwise, it sits, sometimes used in training, sometimes receiving routine maintenance. But mostly, it sits in the parking lot of a police department tasked with protecting a city just shy of 100,000 residents with a crime rate below the national average.
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