So why do the cops need a tank?

[Savannahmann]

47. Ludicrous

If the vehicle is stored in a central location, say the main Police Station, it would take time, several minutes for officers to go and get the thing. Then it would take time to roar across however much distance to the location of the mass shootings. It could take an hour, or more, to get the bloody thing to the site of a problem. So it is useless in that instance, because in an hour, all the victims in the open would be dead ten times over.

It has one function in which it would be useful, and that is an overwhelming show of force in raiding houses. And there aren't many uses for that in reality. It is an excuse to have a tank, call it whatever you want, I'll call it what it is. It is an excuse to have a vehicle that is little use outside of a warzone. If you tell me that the police expect to find themselves in a warzone, I'll ask what nation we are talking about. Because that doesn't happen here. Lone gunmen are not a warzone.

In nearly every other shooting, the tank would be useless. From Columbine to the Navy Yard, the shootings have taken place indoors, which means unless you want to run the "armored vehicle" through a wall, something it is perfectly capable of doing I might add, it would be as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

It is designed as a fire suppression vehicle, hence the turret up top for the large machine gun.