By Eddie Cota

The Whittier City Council voted 5-0 on July 14 to approve the purchase of a new armored vehicle for the police department, replacing a 1979 model that began its life with the U.S. Air Force and ended up in Whittier sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

The new vehicle, called the BATT-X, will cost the city $428,033.34, covering the vehicle itself, freight, taxes, and a dedicated police radio. It joins a second armored vehicle, known as the BATT-APX, which the department bought in 2016. Both are built by the same manufacturer, The Armored Group.

Why the Department Wants It

Chief Aviv Bar told the council the vehicle exists for one purpose: protecting officers from gunfire in situations regular patrol cars can't handle. 

"Our regular police cars cannot protect officers from most firearms," he said. "It's really the only way we have to protect the men and women of this police department from gunfire in these types of situations."

Bar described several scenarios where the department deploys an armored vehicle: serving search warrants on people known to carry weapons, responding to armed standoffs where a suspect has barricaded themselves, and reaching active shooting scenes where officers need cover to approach or attempt a rescue. He recalled a shooting inside a house a few weeks before the meeting, where the department brought out the vehicle in case a rescue was needed while the shooter was still nearby.

The vehicle isn't used for routine patrol. 

"It's not a patrol car. We don't drive this thing around," Bar said. "It's brought out for critical incidents, in places where we have to provide our officers protection from potential fire."

Not a Weapon, Bar Says

Mayor James Becerra pressed Bar on an image in the documents, asking whether what looked like a hatch on top of the vehicle was actually a gun turret. Bar said no. 

"There is no mounted weapon on it," he said. "We don't carry machine guns, the stuff you see in the movies or in the military. It is a transport. It transports our people to these types of situations."

Bar explained the hatch is used for what he called "overwatch," where an officer positioned at the opening can cover the rest of the team with a personal rifle while they approach a location, but nothing is mounted to the vehicle itself.

Becerra asked whether adding a weapon to the vehicle in the future would require a separate approval process. Bar said the department has operated these vehicles for decades without ever attaching a fixed weapon, and that there's no precedent for doing so.

What the Armor Actually Does

Council Member Aida Macedo asked Bar to explain the vehicle's armor rating, listed in the purchase documents as protection against ".50 caliber ball ammo." Bar said most handgun calibers, including 9mm, .40, and .45, would penetrate a standard police car. The BATT-X's steel plating is built to stop rounds up to .50 caliber, one of the largest rounds available to the public before reaching military-grade munitions.

The radio included in the purchase, priced separately at $9,974.27, is the same Motorola police radio used in every other patrol car, Bar said, allowing the vehicle to communicate on the department's existing radio system.

Maintenance and Lifespan

Bar estimated the vehicle is expected to last 20 to 30 years, noting the vehicles are driven very little and spend most of their time parked. "In our profession, we prepare for the worst, but we hope for the best," he said. "They do get deployed from time to time."