HALIFAX—A protest would have to get “out of control” for Halifax Regional Police to bring out their new armoured vehicle, according to the acting chief.

Halifax regional council approved the budget line for the armoured vehicle as part of its 2019-2020 capital budget last month, setting aside $500,000. The approval came the day after a presentation from police to the board of police commissioners, which was the first time councillors and commissioners had heard about the planned purchase. A tender issued online for the vehicle closes next week.

“It was a very frustrating time for myself and for a number of my colleagues and for the community,” Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini said at Monday’s meeting of the city’s board of police commissioners. “And it’s more about the process and the timing, and how it came out.”

Acting Halifax Regional Police Chief Robin McNeil submitted an information memo to Monday’s meeting further explaining the purchase, and how the vehicle would be used.

Mancini said he was happy the report from McNeil better explained some of the questions councillors had around the vehicle, especially about whether it would be used at protests.

McNeil’s report explained the vehicle would only be used for what police call “Level II” deployments — part of the response to events that “are beyond the ability, equipment and skill set of first responders.” Police have previously said the vehicle would be used for scenarios like active shooter situations and even hurricanes.

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Protests generally don’t require a Level II response, McNeil said, adding there are hundreds or protests, walks or marches annually that usually only require bicycle and patrol officers.

“A protest would have to find itself deteriorating out of control ... before you found a vehicle like this as part of an incident,” McNeil told Mancini.

Councillor Shawn Cleary put forward an unsuccessful amendment during council’s budget deliberations in April, hoping to delete the item from the budget.

“It would be shocking to me to think that we would allow the militarization of our police in Halifax,” Cleary said at the time.

McNeil said despite the public perception of the vehicle, police need it.

“As the person who is ultimately responsible for emergency response to critical incidents and public safety matters requiring police, this is something I can no longer afford ‘not’ to have,” he wrote in the memo.

Mancini said it was the timing of the armoured vehicle presentation that caused the most problems, amid the initial discussion on street checks and the breakdown in trust between police and the community.

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“I think there were mistakes made in the positioning and the presentation in the sense that the very first picture we saw was this very tank-like vehicle and because there’s a problem with the trust, that causes problems,” he said.

In an attempt to make sure items like the armoured vehicle aren’t slipped into the budget in future years, Councillor Lindell Smith made a notice of motion for the next board meeting asking the chief of police to “bring both operating and capital budgets for consideration and approval by the board, including any items within the Halifax Regional Municipality’s budget that impact police operations, projects and services.”

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