Be Prepared

There is little point in buying a dog and then barking yourself so we must assume that our new police chief knows what he is talking about.
 
Obviously we do need three armoured vehicles and police having access to the latest weaponry including what looks like sub machine guns. After all, the Pollet can get pretty rough on a Friday night.
 
But seriously, what scenarios are we looking at here?
 
Terrorist attack?
 
Usually unlikely but may become relevant if high profile UK targets come to visit. Perhaps they should bring their own vehicles and security teams. After all, these will be rather more expert in personal protection if they are doing it every day.
 
Deranged gunman?
 
Sadly this is now becoming a possibility even on the Island. But will a fully armour plated land rover help such a situation? In all likelihood the damage will have been done by the time police arrive anyway so we’d be better off with snipers rather than a snatch vehicle or mobile barrier.
 
Bomb threat?
 
Ok, I’m beginning to scrape the barrel a bit. Can’t see anyone wanting to blow up the custard castle except architecture or design students.
 
The downside of not having such a vehicle of course is that something does happen and the police are not equipped to deal with it. How sad would it be to lose lives for the sake of a few thousand quid.
 
This sounds like a reasonable argument but where do you draw the line? It could be used to justify any police spend.
 
I suggest that we need a degree of realism here.
 
Let the police chief bark but let him also tell us why he is barking. 

Give us the reasons why we need this level of protection and stop hiding behind unspecified “potential operational needs”.
 
If the argument is well made then end of story.