Wider World is Watching the BEARCAT in Santa Cruz

Many residents of our community continue to be concerned about the decision by City Council to accept a $251,000 grant from Homeland Security to fund the purchase of a BEARCAT armored response vehicle. But regardless of where you stand on the purchase, I believe that there are a couple things that we can all agree on.

First, I believe that the community must be in possession of all the facts regarding this purchase before we can reach consensus on this issue. Recent revelations have shown that this is clearly not the case. Council Members were told that the BEARCAT was needed to protect officer safety in first responder, weapons fire situations and that the closest vehicle suitable for this purpose was in Santa Clara County. Based upon this representation, they were told that the estimated two hour delay in the arrival of this vehicle when requested would pose a grave danger to officer safety in “live fire” situations. What council was not told was that Scots Valley has a ballistic armored vehicle which arrived at the site of the tragic officer shootings in 2013 within 20 minutes of request and that the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office owns at least one armored vehicle available for emergent situations. In the absence of this basic information, how can council or concerned citizens come to an informed and knowledgeable opinion about the BEARCAT purchase? I think we can agree that we cannot.

Secondly, the issue of the militarization of law enforcement impacts our community far beyond the simple fact of the purchase. It raises an issue of trust between residents and police. Every incoming police administration in recent times has called for a policy of community partnership to bridge the perceived divide between law enforcement and the citizenry. Over the past several years, many members of the community have worked tirelessly to establish a “bond of trust” between officers of the law and the residents they are sworn to protect and serve. The seeming disinformation concerning the need for the BEARCAT and the growing fear that the department is being progressively militarized without public input is threatening to destroy all the work that has been done in this respect. Indeed, I believe that the BEARCAT purchase may irrevocably breach this “bond of trust” we are working to create. We must not allow that to happen.

Finally, it was reported that Patti Smith sang a chorus of “Give Back the BEARCAT” to a sold out crowd at the Rio Theater on Monday night and similar calls to action were heard during the Angela Davis address at the King Convocation. While that alone may not inform public opinion in any significant way, it does highlight one irrefutable fact. The wider world is watching how our community responds to pressure brought to bear by the federal government to militarize local law enforcement agencies. How we respond will be a reflection of what we value as a community. And that is something we can all agree on.