Concord Gets Its BearCat

The Concord Police Department has taken possession of its BearCat, the armored vehicle that the city agreed to obtain with federal grant funds last year. Besides the identifying decals and some minor training, it’s ready to be put into operation, if needed, according to officials.

The BearCat (an acronym for Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck) will be housed in Concord but will be utilized by 17 different communities as part of the Central New Hampshire Special Operations Unit, a SWAT team that communities along I-93 North, from Concord to Lincoln. It replaces a surplus Air Force Peacekeeper that the unit has been using for decades.

The vehicle is basically a jacked up truck, as noted by Sgt. Michael Pearl, who backed it out of the Concord Police Department garage on July 14, for members of the press to see. It features a Ford F-550 chassis, automatic transmission, and armored and glass protection to withstand a .50 caliber round. It’s expected to get about 12 miles to the gallon.

According to both Acting Chief Bradley Osgood and Lt. Timothy O’Malley, the BearCat will be used in emergency situations not unlike the Peacekeeper, such as the reported school shooting at Concord High School last spring that turned out to be a fraudulent report.

“We don’t just call up the SOU on a whim, there’s a protocol,” O’Malley said. “Certain questions would be asked before they would mobilize.”

Osgood said that vehicle will not be available for residents to inspect at the upcoming National Night Out event in August but possibly at future community events.

“I think that we were originally going to have it down there this year but probably won’t,” Osgood said. “Folks from the Central New Hampshire Special Operations Unit need to have time to familiarize themselves with it and that will take place right around the same time as National Night Out this year. Possibly next year. We’ll see how it goes.”

Osgood said the police were creating an internal policy for its use. Member communities, however, could request it and the team at any emergency scene. Concord doesn’t make the final decision of usage although the chief of police is notified beforehand and if there were questions or concerns, he could voice them to the requesting community at that time, he noted.

“There’s a vetting process that we go through with that,” Osgood said. “It’s likely that the vehicle will go as an asset to that callout. It depends on the nature of the callout … it’s a tool, it’s a rescue vehicle … it’s to be used for specific, limited circumstances.”

Members of the press who were in attendance to talk to officials about the new acquisition were not allow access to or to take pictures or video of the inside of the BearCat. O’Malley stated that “there’s some equipment in there and some other things … tactical things that we don’t want to disclose by opening the thing up.”

The procurement of the BearCat was a heated one in the city with hundreds of residents signing petitions requesting the city council reject the proposal. Activists rallied and stated that the community should be more like Mayberry and less like Fallujah. Ultimately, the BearCat proposal was approved by a single vote.