If you see this new police vehicle driving around in your neighbourhood you will know something’s about to go down. On Thursday, Guelph Police Service officially unveiled it’s latest fleet addition, a community rescue vehicle that is meant for the exclusive use of the Tactics and Rescue Unit for “high-risk situations involving significant risk to the safety of the public or police.”

“The Guelph Police Service has identified a need for this type of equipment for several years now,” said Staff Sergeant Michael Davis who oversees the tactics and rescue unit. “This is designed to provide our officers with some risk mitigation at those incidents where there’s a significant threat of violence or where we may encounter firearms. Specifically, it provides protection and really a place of safety for them to start to initiate their actions.”

The vehicle is a 2005 Ford-based Gurkha LAPV built by Newmarket-based Terradyne Armoured Vehicles and acquired from Waterloo Regional Police second hand. The vehicle costs $20,000, which is a proverbial steal compared to the $650,000 price tag for a new CRV fresh off the shelf.

“The situations where we would use this are those high risk, low frequency incidents like an active shooter situation, or an armed barricade situation, or we may use it for vehicle interdiction,” Davies explained. “We also see a use when we execute high risk warrants where there’s an expectation that we’re going to be encountering firearms. I can indicate that over the past few years, we’ve executed at least 30 high risk warrants by the Tactics and Rescue team.”

Weekly police reports are filled with the examples of situations were police are executing warrants where thousands of dollars in drugs are being recovered, and where actual and replica firearms are being discovered. Having said that, Davis noted that the purchase of this vehicle should not be taken as a sign that Guelph is not as safe as it should be.

“The criteria we have set on the use of this [vehicle] is a high risk of significant violence or a high likelihood of encountering firearms,” he said. “It’s just a reality though that the frequency that we’re encountering these situations with a high risk of violence or when firearms may be present is increasing, but this is solely designed to provide or increase the safety of both the community and our members.”

“I don’t believe that this will be something that the community will see driving around on the roads, except in very specific incidents,” Davis added.

“I think this is an excellent, unique tool that will assist our tactics and rescue rnit when we come into those high risk, low frequency events. Something we like to say is ‘We’d rather be looking at the resource than looking for it,'” said Inspector Andrew Goody of neighbourhood services and field support

The money was earmarked from the 2024 fleet budget that was approved in 2023, but the vehicle is just now going into service after being purchased by Guelph Police earlier this year. “We acquired the vehicle early in 2024 and it’s become ready to hit the road for active duty as needed just in the last week, and our members will be out training with it in the coming weeks,” Goody said, who added that 14 members will be trained on use of the vehicle.

“Our members will train in conjunction with Waterloo members to provide the initial training and they will regularly perform training exercises using this piece of equipment so they’re familiar when the time comes to use it, if we ever have to use it.”

*CORRECTION: The original version of the article said that the market cost of a new vehicle is $65,000.