Monroeville will use state grant to add police vehicle protection
Two Monroeville Police officers have been injured in shooting incidents in recent months, and state grant funding will help increase their protection while inside their cruisers.
In November 2023, Bruce Alvarado, 38, of Clairton, was arrested after firing multiple shots at a marked Monroeville police car, striking the officer in both the arm and leg.
In early January, an Aliquippa man was charged with firing 16 shots at a Monroeville police sergeant who responded to a report of an armed robbery at the Crumbl cookie shop in the Miracle Mile shopping center. In addition to striking the sergeant, who underwent surgery for wounds to arm and buttocks, suspect Jamal Brooks also damaged the windshield, hood, front grille and driver’s-side door.
A $145,000 grant from the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development could help prevent that from happening.
The grant will be used for a new vehicle as well as ballistic upgrades to the Monroeville police fleet, according to Monroeville Chief Doug Cole.
“It will be used to replace the vehicle that was destroyed by gunfire, and to add ballistic protection to our fleet of 26 vehicles,” Cole said.
Repairs to the cruiser damaged in the Alvarado case cost about $10,000, Cole said.
The grant will fund the addition of driver- and passenger-side ballistics panels in the department’s vehicle fleet.
Companies like Maryland-based Hardwire have outfitted police, military and government vehicles with armored door panels as well as transparent window inserts made from laminated polycarbonate.
A 2015 pilot program in the New York City Police Department was eventually rolled out across the entire city, with Hardwire installing ballistics protection in thousands of NYPD vehicles.
State Rep. Brandon Markosek, D-Monroeville, who announced the grant, said it “underscores the state’s commitment to providing the necessary resources and tools for the Monroeville Police Department to continue protecting the community.”
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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