Meet the ‘Peacemaker’: Florida’s New Armored Police Surveillance Truck
- Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:20pm by
Buck Sexton
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In some Florida neighborhoods, there’s a new sheriff in town. And this one looks like a cross between an RV and an Armored Personnel Carrier.
It’s called “the peacemaker,” and it’s basically a tricked out police surveillance van.
“Whatcha gonna do when we come for you?” is written in block letters on its exterior. A worthwhile question, it would seem, and one that many Florida residents are asking with mixed emotions.
The “Peacemaker” truck is a new tool in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department struggle against drug dealing and other pervasive neighborhood crimes. As the Sun Sentinel writes it is:
“Mixing high tech with simplicity, the in-your-face strategy is straightforward: load an out-of-service armored truck with some of the latest surveillance equipment available and decorate it with police emblems. Then, simply leave it parked in front of trouble spots.”
This video clip, courtesy of the Sun Sentinel, gives an overview of the Peacemaker:
Fort Lauderdale police bought the first of their two Peacemakers from the Brinks company for $10 to take a discontinued armored bank truck off their hands. Cops retrofitted the vehicle with cameras that can stream live digital video feeds back to headquarters. And with its cameras facing in all directions, the surveillance wagon can compile footage for up to 700 hours.
“Make no mistakes about it,” Detective Travis Mandell told the Sun Sentinel. “We want people to know that we are watching the bad guys.”
Of course, many are already asking the question: just whom do the police consider “bad guys,” and does everyone’s sense of privacy have to disappear in order to keep a lid on petty crimes?
(h/t Drudge)
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Comments (89)
ZeldaZick
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:22pmNow why do Cops need light tanks? Maybe they’re expecting trouble in the near future? An economic panic, food riots, citizens fighting to keep their guns? Weird!
Read “Patriots” by James Rawles, then go to his wedsite: http://www.survivalblog.com and see American Redoubt.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:27pmThey better drive it over to TAMPA for the Republican Convention .. I would bet Occupy will be out in force.
Report Post »LouC57
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:28pmWhy do they need tanks? To control “us”.
Report Post »islamhater
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:42pmThe police force in this country has to much money and are WAY out of control. The biggest gang in America THE POLICE FORCE!!
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:49pmThose who trade Liberty for Security deserve neither…Hope you Police State idiots are happy now. You will be until they catch you doing something they dont like. Then your a@@ is grass and that tank is the lawnmower…
Report Post »BlueStrat
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:55pmHow much will it cost Ft. Lauderdale to clean up after it’s hit with Molotov cocktails and burns down to the axles?
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:45pmTo go along with there drones…… And the border remains wide open…..
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 7:54pmThe “Bad Guys” can be a matter of perspective…
Report Post »C-Delta Conductor
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 12:22amIt’s not a matter of the size of the tank; it’s about the role of police… are they here to prevent crime through intimidation; or are they here to remove dangerous people from the streets after they have committed a crime? Our Constitution says it’s the latter.
Report Post »FreeUsAll
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:17pmThis smells like B.S. to me. Name it the “Peacemaker” to cover the stench. Another reason I don’t like the show “Cops.”. They portray being the good guys, but how often do we jump to assume the apprehended are guilty? Guilty before proven innocent. Decriminalize the common man. This is a police state. I need out of here. I just need to save up to get to Paraguay or the Dominican Republic, then go through the process of citizenship… much time and money involved in such processes. This rat may as well jump ship.
Report Post »Bigrod58
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:23pmAdios. Don’t let our border hit you in the a$$ on the way out.
Report Post »DiscoBall
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:03pmThat mobile unit was in stationed in MY neighborhood. You have obviously never lived in a ‘mixed’ area. These thugs are uncivilized and cause damage. I don’t walk my dog at night. Thank god for the 2nd Amendment!
Report Post »moreteaplease
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:17pm13th Imam
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:55pm
V-Man is gonna have a cow.
Report Post » 13th Imam Reply
goahead.makemyday
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:03pm
A cow? I think he’ll have a humpbacked whale.
***********************************************************
Ohhh, you just know he’s going to have something to bring to the table on this one :)
Stand back folks!
Report Post »GPS-Tech
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:35pmSeriously, his uterus is gonna fall out when he ses this.
Report Post »TheVoice1
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 11:41pmA major V-melt ahead!!
Report Post »moreteaplease
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:13pmI’m thinking of a word….ah yes, that’s it, “inconspicuous”! I always thought that was part of the surveillance process. Guess not.
If they’re looking to prevent arrests from being made, then this is one sure fire way to go about it.
As Dirty Harry would say “ Swell ”.
Report Post »DSTSS2010
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:06pmIt looks like it is already armored, all they need to do next is add the rocket launchers and cannons.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:03pmThe plan of the TSA?HS types is to put up cameras everywhere just like in Britain. These cameras will be alomst everwhere. On telephone poles, over stop lights, on stop signs, in trees, and of course, on all buildings and corners. Trucks similar to these will be common place to patrol and monitor the cameras. Britain is almost a camera-ruled prison. We will be the same. THis is done in the name of preventing the Islamist from attacking us yet the keep letting in Islamist. The cameras are really for herding the people and for punishing social crimes. ‘God…did that guy just light a cigarette? Send the truck!”
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:02pmThe Peacemaker? It is always very peaceful for the person behind the armor.
Maybe if they sold Ice Cream from there (soft serve with sprinkles) I would be in agreement with it….
Report Post »MYHEROISRON
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:14pmI fully expect the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile to pull in and park right next to it! Damn thing looks like a taco truck!
Report Post »McNamara
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:00pmCameras can be sniped out or have infra red beams pointed at them to distort.
Report Post »BlueStrat
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 2:50pmSeriously, I wonder how long that thing well last? If that thing isn‘t trashed inside a week I’ll be shocked. Heck, the drug dealers around here will walk up to a cop sitting in his car and cap him point-blank. The cops around here know where *not* to go, if they want to see home that night.
This is the place where that guy walked into a police station and opened up with a 12-ga. There’s no fear of police here. They’re outnumbered and outgunned. Yes, outgunned. I’ve heard rumors from credible sources that at least one Latino gang in the D-Town area has their OWN “militarized” Bell 212 helicopter!
Let ‘em try parking something like that RV in a DETROIT ghetto at night! LOL!
That thing would end up stripped, up on blocks, and become a burned-out hulk within 4 hours, tops!
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:55pmV-Man is gonna have a cow.
Report Post »goahead.makemyday
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:03pmA cow? I think he’ll have a humpbacked whale.
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:54pmReminds me a lot of this book review posted on Amazon:
———————————————-
“George Orwell’s classic was incredibly visionary. It is hardly fathomable that this book was written in 1948. Things that we take for granted today – cameras everywhere we go, phones being tapped, bodies being scanned for weapons remotely – all of these things were described in graphic detail in Orwell’s book.
Now that we have the Internet and people spying on other people w/ webcams and people purposely setting up their own webcams to let others “anonymously” watch them, you can see how this culture can develop into the Orwellian future described in “1984.”
Report Post »http://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934
spirited
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:56pmIs EPA going Soilant Green?
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:52pmIn the last photo the armored RV looks like a face that is winking at the lady walking in front of it.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:05pmBy the look of her clothes, I‘d say she’s running from a flood.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:52pmThe people of this Florida community should get together to destroy what their own tax dollars have been used to pay for. They should get a petition signed by a couple thousand of their city’s residents and then torch the truck. If the residents of the city agree to destroy their own property, then it isn’t vandalism, arson, or a criminal act.
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:12pmAh, but it is. You clearly don’t understand how government works. You see, all money is the government’s. It‘s just on loan when it’s in your pocket.
The scary part? My answer was somewhat sarcastic, but I’ve spoken to people who actually believe that crap.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:48pmI like the one Bill Murry drove in “Stripes” better. { :>)
Report Post »CatB
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:43pmLOL .. That RV was cool! Except for the color ;-)
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:46pmCertainly didn’t look like it was parked in a high crime area. I wonder if the Rhyming Reverends would cause an outrage if they parked them in ghettos?
Report Post »i am jacks social outlet
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:43pm“Why do you think these drug dealers aren’t talking?”
Report Post »“I don’t know. It‘s not like we’re parked 10 yards away from their house in a van with ‘Mobile Surveillance Unit’ printed on it in big letters.”
the hawk
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:49pmI’d spend 5 days to walk up and piss on the front of it !
Report Post »Mtroom
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:28pmHasn’t this stuff all been done before?…The problem I see with this?…What happens next, is that all those drug- dealing criminals will now disperse to different locations…Ask “Crocket and Tubbs” if they think this is a good idea? At least at this point the vice cops know where these guys are, and can build a case.(not like it makes that big of a difference with our legal system)..LA took on the bloods and the crips…remember…Soon after how many showed up in other towns that didn’t see it coming? Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Portland and even Alaska..To many to list…How about Chicago and the housing district they destroyed because of the lawlessness..I know it’s tough to catch these people, but it starts by knowing where the criminals are.
Report Post »BlindSquirrel57
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:40pmIf anyone else were president and attorney general, I would think that truck is a good idea.
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:55pmThis kind of van isn’t a good idea at *any* time.
Better not to let them have tools like so when they eventually *do* get to be President and AG, they’re not in the arsenal, ready to use.
Report Post »azjeff1963
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:39pmHEY isnt that lady J walking??? book her Dano.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:01pmNo, she isn’t.
Report Post »azjeff1963
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:16pmyour RIGHT…thats no lady….
Report Post »ipockpa
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:39pmI thought surveilance worked best when the suspect DOES NOT know when they are being watched, Intimidation works the other way around.
Report Post »ipockpa
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:36pmI thought surveillance worked best when the suspect DOES NOT know when they are being watched. Intimidation works the other way around.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:44pmWelcome to the acclimation process of Big Brother and Big Sister; they are getting us used to this happening step by step until the lid comes down completely.
Report Post »MirabellaDesign
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:35pmFunny how all the good cops I know are getting out of the people control biz…
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:33pmCops are civilians as opposed to military folks. Maybe this is part of the build up of the civilian force Dear Leader spoke about in 2008. Many small to medium size towns are getting this equipment. It will make it much easier for them to institute gun confiscation. Want to hole up? You won’t stand a chance.
Report Post »Tom K
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:31pmThe law breakers continue to break the law under the view of this vehicle either because they can not read or because they are stupid. Do law busting idiots really need to be on the street ?
Report Post »war7412
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:30pm“Damn………..We need 2 of Them in Philly………..
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:26pmLooks like big brother has got a new RV……I have no doubt they will watching “criminals”, but it remains to be seen, just how they define a person as someone in need of watching….
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:45pmThe camera’s face in all directions….They are watching everyone.
Report Post »ozchambers
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:23pmA simple “Big Brother is Watching YOU” sign would’ve been cheaper.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:38pmIf a well connected gang wants to take something like that out they would have no problem. Fort Lauderdale would be better off deputizing some active or retired Marines or Green Berets. You need to get out into the community not out some armor between you & the public. They cannot possibly up armor enough. They could have 4 M!A1s & it would not be enough. You need to embed the police in the community. You nee the community to trust the police. But if the back end of the justices system (the courts & penal system) is broke fat chance of that happening.
It is intimidation which will work for a while.
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