The fatal flaw in a State Dept armored SUV that cost the life of an agent

[LittleLebowski]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/we-are-shot-we-are-shot-ice-agents-final-moments-resound-in-us-court/2017/07/24/5e24f5ca-672b-11e7-a1d7-9a32c91c6f40_story.html?utm_term=.121dc600da96


It was shortly after 2 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2011, and Avila’s partner, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jaime J. Zapata, lay dying in the driver’s seat of their armored, State Department-issued SUV.

The SUV was built to withstand high-velocity gunfire, grenades and land mines. Yet it also came with a consumer convenience: When put in park, its doors unlocked automatically, a flaw previously unaddressed by the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security worldwide.

[rjohnson4405]

I hate that feature, I think it's dangerous just for civilians in dark parking lots. I do like the put it in gear and doors lock feature. Some cases you can turn it off, some you can't.

[Peally]

Disabled in every vehicle I own, and not the first time I've read of it having disastrous results.

[Joe in PNG]

Doors that automatically lock when in drive- brilliant. The unlock thing is just plain stoopid.

[voodoo_man]

Yep.

Although I believe there are over-rides....if I am not mistaken?

[NEPAKevin]

GM calls it the door auto lock/unlock feature and the procedure is usually in the manual. Example:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJTrKQVvcM

[Odin Bravo One]

It was brought to their attention before this incident.

It was ignored.

I was there for the conversation in 2010 where the local ambassador was informed of this flawed feature. I know exactly what was said, because I was there when I said it.

My rhetorical question is: why couldn't this shit happen when Hillary was in the motorcade?

[heyscooter]

Yep.

Although I believe there are over-rides....if I am not mistaken?

The newer ones have it as an optional setting you can adjust from the factory head unit. Some of the models come from the factory programmed where they will lock when put into drive (but not unlock in park). The older ones require a combination of a fuse pull and/or an input process (put car in ignition, hold down door lock for 10 seconds, say biggie smalls three times in a mirror, etc) to adjust configuration.

[TGS]

It was brought to their attention before this incident.

It was ignored.

I was there for the conversation in 2010 where the local ambassador was informed of this flawed feature. I know exactly what was said, because I was there when I said it.

My rhetorical question is: why couldn't this shit happen when Hillary was in the motorcade?

Why the ambo, and not the RSO?

[Odin Bravo One]

Because the RSO was stateside, and the ARSO was incompetent......and in the same room as the Ambo. And I don't work for DoS. I relayed the information to competent authority. But not my circus, not my monkeys.

[Jeep]

Because the RSO was stateside, and the ARSO was incompetent......and in the same room as the Ambo. And I don't work for DoS. I relayed the information to competent authority. But not my circus, not my monkeys.

Yeah, but yet another example of our government's far-too-frequent inability to take constructive feedback and use it when it comes to elementary safety issues. Probably no one in that room believed that he or she owned the problem once you pointed it out, and even if they did, no one upstream got it done. I saw the same thing happen in Big Army repeatedly.

[Odin Bravo One]

In this situation it simple resulted in a stolen firearm....... but no one at State was terribly concerned. All organizations suffer their own demons, and chalking things up as "the Price of doing business" seems to be more and more common. The gun was recovered in short order, and it seemed from my perspective that once the gun made it back to its assigned person, the problem was solved, requiring no further assessment or action to prevent a repeat.

[blues]

In this situation it simple resulted in a stolen firearm....... but no one at State was terribly concerned. All organizations suffer their own demons, and chalking things up as "the Price of doing business" seems to be more and more common. The gun was recovered in short order, and it seemed from my perspective that once the gun made it back to its assigned person, the problem was solved, requiring no further assessment or action to prevent a repeat.

Myopia is a common disease at the administrative level of many branches of government.

When 9/11 hit, I was summoned back to our arms smuggling / JTTF liaison group from my penance of working narcotics for pissing off the brass.

I recommended setting up a number of teams responsible for searching, securing and investigating potential weak spots at the air and sea ports since we had no idea at the time how pervasive the threat might be. Anyone who has been around vast cargo container yards and ROROs understands how difficult an undertaking this would be.

Instead, I was told to stand down and belay that order because we had a team of auditors coming down from Washington to make sure that the evidence room, its inventoried items and logs were up to snuff. I tried to convince the brass that the evidence would still be there later as it was going nowhere. Nope. Priorities, you understand.

And that's when I knew I would be counting the days until I met the age requirement to put in for my pension.

Had something have happened at the air or sea ports of Miami / Ft. Lauderdale and environs I'd have never gotten another night of peaceful sleep again.