Police Trying to Sell 11-Ton White Elephant

In 1985, it was christened by U.S. Atty. General Edwin Meese III as the San Diego Police Department’s newest weapon in SWAT operations, with the ability to move in under heavy gunfire and rescue hostages. The blessing was short-lived.

The 11-ton Victim Rescue Vehicle, which was paid for with $127,000 in private donations raised by the San Diego Crime Commission, is expected to go on sale soon.

‘Too Heavy and Difficult to Maneuver’

“It hasn’t really turned out to be as versatile a vehicle as we thought,” said Lt. Lee Sanford, the special weapons and tactics unit commander. “It’s too heavy and difficult to maneuver.”

The San Diego City Council is reviewing a request by the department to sell the vehicle and is expected to approve the sale, Sgt. Fred Hoyle said.

Hoyle said that with the proceeds from the sale, the police department plans to revamp the van currently used by the SWAT team and buy a smaller vehicle to store its equipment.

The department has set the minimum bid at $100,000, and a local collector of armored vehicles has already contacted police officials, Sanford said.

Sanford said several incidents, including a 1979 hostage standoff on Interstate 8 that lasted three hours and ended when SWAT team members shot a suspect to death, forced the department to look at armored vehicles.

Among the most attractive features of the machine when it was purchased were its all-terrain, four-wheel drive and its armored body, Sanford said.

Another strong point was that a pumping system that gets rid of water faster than it takes it in reportedly made the vehicle amphibious.

But, Sanford said, “I’m not willing to take that risk with a vehicle that weighs 11 tons.”

The weight was a problem about two years ago when the SWAT team went to serve a high-risk warrant at a Black Mountain home near Rancho Penasquitos, Sanford said. “The tank spent two or three days stuck in the mud.”

Though he will not reveal any figures, Sanford said the maintenance costs for the machine are astronomical. Most of its parts are custom-made.

“You just don’t say I want a leap spring for the vehicle and order one,” Sanford said.

Buddy Carroll, the Police Department’s equipment repair supervisor, said, “It’s one of the most expensive pieces of equipment we have to maintain. But that’s the nature of the beast. It’s a unique piece of equipment.

The “beast” is like a tank except it has wheels. The operator has very limited visibility. It has room for about eight people. Sanford would not reveal any of its security features in case the vehicle is sold to a police agency.

Many other jurisdictions have armored vehicles, including the Los Angeles Police Department, which owns a 6-ton armored truck with a controversial 14-foot steel battering ram that is used to break into drug houses.

San Diego’s machine has been taken along during SWAT operations at least “half a dozen times” in its three years here, Sanford said, adding that, “To my knowledge, it hasn’t actually been used” in a rescue.

But Sanford insists that that doesn’t diminish its importance.

“I think one thing needs to be said, and that is even SWAT teams are nothing more than insurance and the fact that it isn’t used doesn’t mean it’s not needed.”