BearCat to the Rescue!

Yesterday (Thursday) morning I accompanied Mayor Bill Bogaard and City Manager Michael Beck to the Pasadena Police Department for a briefing on our new BearCat armored vehicle.

In the photo above, (from left) Lt. John Dewar explains some details to Mayor Bogaard as Cmdr. Mike Korpal, Michael Beck and Police Chief Phil Sanchez look on.

And here's the very important vehicle we were discussing (that's Michael looking in the driver's side door):


Its purpose is to preserve the safety of police officers and citizens during potentially deadly incidents.

Purchased with $265,000 in grant funding, the BearCat was delivered to the Pasadena Police Department recently. It's the only one of its kind in the San Gabriel Valley and is a regional SWAT vehicle. So Pasadena owns it, but it is lent to other jurisdictions in the SGV as needed.

Within hours of our briefing, the BearCat was used in Monrovia during a seven-hour standoff between a car thief and Arcadia, Monrovia and Pasadena police after the suspect led police on a chase through a couple of jurisdictions.

You'll notice a portion of our BearCat on the right side of this photo, taken by Terry Miller, that I borrowed from his article on the Arcadia Weekly website:


Lt. Dewar told me today via e-mail that the BearCat helped transport officers from various agencies plus equipment to the scene. It also helped some very frightened bystanders get away from the potentially deadline scene.

"It turned out that eight people had locked themselves in a business nearby and were afraid to leave the building since the suspect was in close proximity," he wrote. "Our officers drove the BearCat to the rear door of the business; all eight people climbed in and were driven safely out of the danger area."

Sept. 6 update -- Terry Miller e-mailed me some additional photos yesterday: