Police sing praises of armoured vehicle following string of incidents in Winnipeg

Winnipeg police are touting the importance of having the ARV1 armoured rescue vehicle in their arsenal amid a growing number of incidents involving guns in the city.

Police gave reporters a look at the armoured vehicle on Fridayand discussed its role in recent incidentslike thesituation that unfolded at a home nearSalter Street and Bannerman Avenue on Nov. 7.

The incident saw police arrest a 16-year-old boy, who allegedly fired shots at police, after an hours-long standoff.

"I'm not going to lie, that's an extremely stressful situation," said Const. Tyler Loewen, who is on the Winnipeg Police Service'stactical support team. "Whether you're a general patrol member or a tactical support team member, or anybody who goes out there. That's going to be a stressful situation to receive incoming fire."

Winnipeg police purchased the vehicle, manufactured by Terradyne Armoured Vehicles, in 2015 for $342,800. It weighs approximately 7,710 kilograms, seats eight and has eight gun ports.

Loewensays the police will use ARV1for extremely high-risk situations, such as warrants for firearms, situations like the one on Salter Street andBannermanAvenue, or any kind of gun call that's in progress.

"Any kind of high-risk event where there's firearms involved or believed to be firearms involved, then we'll try and deploy this unit for that purpose," he said.

"Say there's officers pinned down from gunfirewe're able to get officers out, make sure that they make it home safely to their families," said Loewen.

While the vehicle has come under fire literally like in the Bannerman incident, where it took live rounds it's also come under its fair share of criticism. Areport to the Winnipeg Police Board in 2017 found it was used more for training and community events in its first year than it was for actual tactical deployments.

Police said Friday the vehicle is deployed to calls 3-4 times permonth.

Const. Rob Carver said police have been attending an increasing amount of gun calls in the city.

"Anecdotally, I can tell you the scenes I have been involved over the last month and there has been quite a number of them every single situation the guns had been obtained illegally," said Carver.

"The reason the tactical support team exists is to support their efforts in safely resolving any kind of armed and barricaded incident or any kind of high-risk call for service," Loewen said.

Police said theteenager arrested in the Bannerman Avenueincident faces 30charges, including seven for attempted murder.