TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo City Council is putting a pause on the transfer of a new armed vehicle for the Toledo Police Department.
During Wednesday's meeting, many from the community told council that it's not a good idea.
TPD representatives told WTOL 11 they want to use this armored vehicle to protect their medical personnel in dangerous situations, but community members who showed up for Wednesday afternoon's city council meeting said the last thing Toledo should do is militarize its police forces even more.
"Military weaponry of this type really has no place in a domestic police department," Rebecca Sutton Sillery said.
"It does entice the police to use it in a militarized way," Stuart Bertsch said.
"I believe the very presence of this vehicle positions myself and my fellow citizens as the enemy of the police," Selah Carter added.
Those were just a few of the over half dozen people who spoke inside Toledo City Council chambers Wednesday afternoon, asking council to deny TPD's request for an MRAP, or Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle. The same kind of vehicle is used by the U.S. military in the Middle East.
However, Officer Prince Flores, TPD's public information officer, said the vehicle could be an enormous asset for their tactical medics in high-risk situations and active shooter incidents.
"When you have something like that going on and we need to get there and get injured people out or injured officers out, this vehicle will allow us to get up there closer, get our tac-medics out there to try to possibly provide life-saving measures and give them medical attention," Flores said.
Flores said incidents like 2021's infamous July 4 block party shooting is a good example. On that night, 12 people were injured, including an 11-year-old, but medical personnel couldn't get to them right away due to active gunfire.
Flores said an MRAP would change how that situation and others like it could have been handled, and he said it all comes at no cost to the taxpayer.
"The vehicle is decommissioned through the military through the 1033 program and repurposed through law enforcement," Flores said. "It's no cost to us, just the availability of its use."
But the people who sat inside council chambers on Wednesday said they don't trust the police with these kinds of military-grade tools.
This MRAP would be the department's second armored vehicle in their possession, and many of the people in council's chambers remember them using their first against the public during the George Floyd protests in 2020.
"I watched that vehicle slowly roll down the road shooting people from the turret and the cops laughing," Bertsch said. "I don't want to see that again."
The proposal was sent to committee for further review.
A Toledo City Council member told WTOL 11 the earliest they will vote on this issue again will be the middle of next month, but they said this proposal might just disappear.