Sentinel ARV haas seating for 10-12 people
April 8. By Dave Vieser. The Cornelius Town Board has approved the purchase of a $373,650 Emergency Sentinel Police Vehicle, using asset forfeiture funds. This will be the first time Cornelius Police will have such a vehicle in their fleet, and Chief David Baucom says it’s needed.
“This emergency vehicle will allow officers to safely deal with a wide variety of emergency calls where the lives of officers and the public are in danger,” Baucom said.
In 2024, four law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in Charlotte and several others were injured.
Quotable
Cornelius Police Chief David R. Baucom
“These types of vehicles were used by CMPD to evacuate and rescue officers that day and likely saved the lives of other injured officers. In Cornelius, there have been numerous dangerous events in the past and we would like the ability to respond quickly to incidents of this nature.”
—Chief Baucom
Background
All officers will eventually be trained on the new emergency vehicle, and Baucom said there would likely be a team which receives extraordinary training for highly unusual circumstances.
The chief also noted that consideration was given to a joint purchase with neighboring law enforcement agencies. However, Huntersville already has their own, and Davidson did not express any interest in partnering with Cornelius on this project.
To purchase the vehicle the town and the police department went through a Request For Proposal (RFP) process which led to four manufacturers submitting bids on this vehicle known as the Sentinel.
Details
International Armored Group of St. Augustine, Fla., was ultimately selected based on pricing, specifications required, and equipment offered.
Baucom expects the new vehicle to arrive in Cornelius approximately 180 days after the final agreement papers are completed and he believes the vehicle will last for at least 20 years.
“Our plans are to primarily use it for police related responses, but it can be used in many different types of calls including medical incidents, weather-related incidents, and really any incident where it might be useful.”
Impressive vehicle and always in favor of protecting those who also protect us. I am curious though about the frequency of threatening encounters by people who are likely to cause harm to the police in Cornelius. I am also curious about the potential for such an imposing vehicle to be misused and wisdom of accepting its cost for a highly unlikely event in our town. I’m willing to acccept it if similar expenditures were made to reduce the societal health and educational problems that contribute to lawlessness and violence, and you could look that up!
Posted by John Joseph Botti | April 8, 2025, 3:36 pmStop with the militarization of the police. And this is coming from a veteran.
Posted by Jim Brown | April 8, 2025, 4:46 pmThey have to spend all that asset forfeiture money on something – unfortunately, it completely incentives waste and fraud in what the money is spent on. Huntersville bought theirs from the former chief’s department in VA – complete conflict of interest. People in Cornelius need to start asking serious questions about this purchase – $373K and no one can tell you where this money is coming from.
Posted by Eric Rowell | April 9, 2025, 10:05 am$373K for an armored military vehicle and not a single member of the Cornelius Town Board can tell you how Cornelius PD obtained these funds.
Posted by Eric Rowell | April 9, 2025, 8:19 amI believe it was asset forfeiture funds…although they do not go into detail on that!
Posted by James Reed | April 9, 2025, 10:26 am