Halifax police asking for armoured vehicle in upcoming budget

Halifax Regional Police will ask for an armoured vehicle for high-risk situations in the upcoming city budget, but one policing expert is urging restraint when it comes to such tools.

On Friday, a Halifax city spokesperson said the municipal police force will put forward a request for an armoured vehicle in the 2025-26 capital budget that is similar to one that was approved in 2019.

In June 2020, council cancelled the $368,000 expense for that vehicle following George Floyd's death and protests about police brutality against Black people. Instead, council used the funds for the city's diversity and inclusion office, the public safety office and anti-Black racism programs.

Now, Halifax police are asking to buy a similar vehicle once again. It's unclear yet what it would cost or what the model would be.

A police spokesperson said in an email Friday that the armoured vehicle "would only be for the highest-risk situations." 

"This is not a vehicle that would be seen on the streets regularly, but it would be an important tool in our toolkit so that we're prepared to respond to very serious events," said Marla MacInnis.

Currently, HRP calls in the Nova Scotia RCMP's armoured vehicle when needed. MacInnis said Monday the force has used the RCMP's vehicle about 10 times this year for things like firearm offences, high-risk warrant executions involving firearms, weapons or drug-related offences, or a barricaded person.

"It's a piece of equipment that is greatly needed and is long overdue," said Darla Perry, president of the Halifax police union.

Perry said she's been pushing for the force to get such a vehicle for more than a decade, and has filed an occupational health and safety complaint with the provincial Labour Department "to investigate why we don't have one."

"We don't go out on the street without armoured vests on. This is a ballistic shield that provides a level of protection between the police and the person they're dealing with, and the public and the person we're dealing with," Perry said.

CBC News asked the Labour Department when this complaint was received and whether any action had been taken, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Perry said HRP wants to buy a model similar to the Mounties' vehicle, given the integrated nature of Halifax RCMP and municipal police.

HRP uses the term "armoured rescue vehicle," which Perry said is more accurate because it can be used to pull officers or civilians from dangerous situations. 

Temitope Oriola, a criminology professor at the University of Alberta who studies terrorism and police use of force, said the term is "bureaucratic pyrotechnics" and it's the public's job to unwrap police terminology.

"Language is an interesting thing. When you have control over language, you have control over how something is talked about and how it will not be talked about," said Oriola.

"These are armoured tanks. Let's make no mistakes about it."

Oriola said some police forces may need such vehicles if they regularly deal with terrorist threats or major territorial battles involving street gangs, but police have dealt with domestic violence, firearm calls and homicides for generations without them.

"Is the situation in Halifax so egregious that you need that? I'm not saying they don't, I'm just saying let's ask yourself that question objectively: do we truly need an armoured tank on the streets of Halifax?"

Halifax falls below the national average of firearm-related violent crime incidents, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada. In 2022, Halifax incidents went down to 137 (a rate of 28.5 per 100,000 people) from 149 in 2021 at a rate of 32.4. 

Canada's rate was 36.7 in 2022, up from 33.7 in 2021.

In 2023, Halifax's violent crime severity index also fell below the national level for the first time since 2020.

Oriola said bringing such a vehicle to a house where someone has barricaded themselves inside could escalate rather than defuse a situation. He said police forces should err on the side of restraint when it comes to these tools and do everything they can to keep the public's trust.

"I worry that excessive militarization takes away from that trust. It erodes that confidence in the police," Oriola said.

Coun. Tony Mancini asked about the armoured vehicle at last Wednesday's board of police commissioners meeting when the HRP operating budget was discussed. Chief Don MacLean said that the vehicle request is part of the city's capital budget and did not offer any more details.

Police vehicles are always requested through the capital budget in Halifax that is debated by regional council, but in 2019 HRP publicly presented details on the rescue vehicle to the city's police board. That did not happen this year.

Mancini said he's confident councillors will have a thorough conversation about the armoured vehicle when the capital budget is presented in February. He said he's leaning toward supporting the request given Halifax's size but has to wait to see how much it will cost and when it would be used.

"We should have it, because if we have a situation where it's needed and we're scrambling because we don't have one, we need to borrow RCMP's — that's not a situation we should be in," Mancini said in an interview.

The overall city budget will be passed in April.

The city also purchased two smaller armoured Ford F-350 trucks in last year's 2024-25 budget for $410,000. They were needed as an enhancement to replace two non-armoured vehicles used by Halifax Regional Police's emergency response team, a municipal spokesperson said in an email.

Those vehicles are expected to be in service by spring 2025.