MRAP Joins Sheriff's Department After Serving in Iraq

Six-wheeled Iraq veteran joins sheriff's department
Southeast Missourian
By Emily Priddy
Friday, March 21, 2014

Lt. Chris Hull with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, opens the 700-pound driver's side door to the department's new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle Friday afternoon.
(Laura Simon)

If Batman owned a station wagon, it might look a little like the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department's newest vehicle.

The department recently acquired a 31-ton, six-wheeled Iraq War veteran capable of hauling eight to 11 people through ice, high water and improvised explosive devices.

"It's seriously armored. They made these things to protect the troops from IEDs," said Lt. Chris Hull of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.

The vehicle, called an MRAP -- an acronym for mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle -- had 20 miles on its odometer when the U.S. Department of Defense transferred it to the county, Hull said.

"It was a vehicle that we acquired through the DOD program where they demilitarize certain pieces of equipment from the military and offer it to law enforcement," he said.

The department announced the acquisition on Facebook, where Hull said some "haters" were questioning why a local law-enforcement agency would need such a powerful tool.

"It was free," he said. "It was offered to us. ... Even if this thing gets utilized one time or so and it saves someone's life, it's well worth it."

Hull said several thousand of the vehicles exist, but only 350 were reconditioned for police use before the federal government canceled the program; the rest will be scrapped.
read more here