Dozens of defence contractors showed off their latest gear and technology at the annual International Police Chief Association conference and exhibition this past week in Philadelphia.
Everything from lethal and non-lethal weapons, body armour, drones, policing software, uniforms, and even vehicles were on display, including a new armoured vehicle called “The Rook.”
The Rook, designed by Ring Power Corporation, a heavy equipment company that modifies vehicles, is essentially an armoured Caterpillar vehicle that has been modified for SWAT and other police units.
It comes with four attachments and can be used for all kinds of scenarios, including hostage rescue, barricaded suspects, riots, and natural disasters.
At least 25 different police departments across the US have purchased one, and many more are interested, a Ring Power Corporation sales manager, Shaun Mitchell, told Business Insider Tuesday.
Check it out below:
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The Rook is named after the chess piece, meaning checkmate, Miller said.
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Source: Shaun Mitchell, Ring Power Corporation.
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The Rook was even used by the San Bernardino Police to take down Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the married couple who carried out the terrorist attack in 2015.
Here are some other police departments using The Rook:
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New York Police Department
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New Mexico State Police
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Albuquerque Police
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Pennsylvania State Police
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Mississippi State Police
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Jacksonville Police
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Boca Raton Police
Screenshot/Inside Edition
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Ring Power Tactical Solutions
Ring Power Tactical Solutions
Ring Power Tactical Solutions
The breaching ram delivers 6500 psi of pressure, and is able to break through block walls, reinforced steel doors, wood and concrete.
Ring Power Tactical Solutions
Ring Power Tactical Solutions
Scott Olson/Getty
Police force protestors from the business district into nearby neighbourhoods on August 11, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.But University of Tampa Professor Abigail Hall, author of the forthcoming book 'Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism,' told Business Insider that it really depends on how law enforcement agencies use it.
Hall said that new equipment like The Rook is often 'introduced under the auspices of making police safer,' but in reality can incentivise 'police to engage in more aggressive behaviour.'
Ultimately, Hall said, 'this type of equipment is very much in line with the recent trend of police being armed with military style equipment.'
In late August, President Donald Trump announced that he would roll back regulations, imposed by former President Barack Obama, on certain kinds of military equipment and weapons that police departments could receive from the military.
Obama signed the executive order in 2015 because
he worried that certain weapons and equipment, including armoured tracked vehicles, could create an 'us versus them' mentality, like the events in Ferguson, Missouri.
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