HomeMy WebLinkAbout9-29-14 Drummond-Bearcat Armored VehicleFrom:Jim Drummond
To:Agenda
Subject:Bearcat Armored Vehicle
Date:Monday, September 29, 2014 7:53:21 AM
Dear members of the Commission:
As a local bank President, each day that I come to work I worry about bank security, armed robbery
and employee/customer hostage situations. In Bozeman Montana the odds of an armed robbery
are much less than larger communities. Nonetheless, within the past decade local banks have been
robbed at gunpoint several times and on one occasion bank employees were taken hostage outside
a bank, dowsed with gasoline and threated. The daily risk of robbery and employee/customer
safety weighs heavily on most business owners and managers in our community.
Over the past few years our bank has had several “false alarms” due faulty security equipment. The
BPD has responded quickly and effectively. I have never doubted their ability and willingness to
keep our staff safe. When the BPD has responded they are equipped with modern technology
including communications equipment, in car MDT’s, modern weapons and officer safety
equipment. I believe the technology and equipment, coupled with significant and appropriate
officer training, will someday be the difference between a surviving or dead officer or hostage.
While we wish our officers could carry colt revolvers, Winchester lever action rifles, and
communicate car to car with Motorola tube radios, those days have passed us by.
I have followed the debate over the Bearcat armored vehicle. From my perspective, this is a valid
and needed tool for the BPD. If we do have a hostage situation, or hostage/robber in our parking
lot, or in the worst case an injured hostage or officer, the armored vehicle will give the responding
tactical team a critical piece of technology that could save a life.
My job is to keep my staff and customers safe. The job of the BPD is to keep the entire community
safe. Lets give the BPD the tools that are now available so that they, and I , can do our job.
Jim Drummond, Regional President, Stockman Bank of Montana