St. Petersburg Unveils Armored Rescue Vehicle

The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Police Department publicly unveiled its new Lenco BearCat armored rescue vehicle for high-risk encounters involving the SWAT team.

The agency acquired the vehicle following the line-of-duty deaths of Officer Jeffrey Yaslowitz and Sgt. Tom Baitinger in January of 2011. The St. Petersburg P.D. didn't have an armored truck so SWAT team members had to crouch behind a commandeered dump truck until armored vehicles from other Tampa Bay area agencies arrived, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

The department paid $225,000 for the vehicle from drug seizure funds.

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