The Gilroy City Council and other city leaders took a break from
a goal-setting session to look at the county’s new armored vehicle,
known as the BearCat which will be housed in Gilroy
How’s this for a lunch break?
The Gilroy City Council took time out from it’s annual goal-setting session Friday to get a hands-on look at Santa Clara County’s new armored vehicle.
The vehicle, known as a BearCat, arrived in Gilroy two days ago, GPD Chief Denise Turner said.
About six weeks ago, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department was informed it would be receiving the BearCat through an Urban Area Security Initiative Program grant.
The vehicle, worth $285,000,will be stored at the GPD and will come at no cost to the city, Turner said.
“This will be a great new tool for the South County,” she said. “We’re going to be sharing it. It’s a great asset.”
The GPD volunteered to store the vehicle when the county purchased it, GPD Sgt. Chad Gallacinao told the Dispatch earlier this month. The county agreed because Gilroy was considered an appropriate deployment location, he said.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Rick Sung said earlier this month that the vehicle, similar to those used by SWAT teams and the U.S. Army, is often used to combat barricaded subjects, hostage situations, bank robberies and other situations with “highly volatile suspects.”
“We don’t have any other vehicle like that in South County,” Sung said.
