The EPD’s MRAP rolled into town in the fall of 2013, and will presumably roll out the same way. File photo.

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The Eureka City Council is set to determine that its police department’s need of military hardware is not as pressing as it once was.

Back in 2013, acting Eureka Police Chief Murl Harpham made quite a splash – one of the many splashes he made in his long career – by acquiring a jacked-up Army vehicle capable of withstanding improvised explosive devices and other battlefield weaponry, for use in various hypothetical police operations.

The vehicle — an MRAP, or “mine-resistant ambush protected” personnel carrier — was one of many the Pentagon sold to law enforcement agencies throughout the country for a song. This was part of the military’s general offloading of obsolete war gear to the civilian sphere happening at the time, which would inspire all sorts of award-winning investigative articles in the national media about six months later. 

Our MRAP was never used, at least not in any non-ceremonial way.

Now the Eureka Police Department’s newish Citizen Advisory Panel has made an official recommendation to scrap the thing altogether — to ship it back to the federal government, or to some other police agency that might want it. That request was recently forwarded to current EPD Chief Andrew Mills, who forwarded it to the City Council, who have placed it on the March 1 agenda. 

In a letter to the council, Mary Kirby, the chief’s administrative assistant notes three things:

  • The vehicle is not appropriate for policing Eureka.
  • There is no EPD policy for when and how to use it, and 
  • No one on staff knows how to drive it, anyway.

The item appears on the agenda’s consent calendar, which means that it is expected to pass without comment or opposition. They think it’s going to cost the city in the neighborhood of $5,000 to ship it out of here.

Have something to say about this? The Eureka City Council meets Tuesday, March 1, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Eureka City Hall (531 K Street).

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