There are plenty of armored, purpose-built SWAT vehicles with gun ports that will withstand pressure-cooker or pipe bombs just fine. And they cost less than the quarter to half-million dollars for overseas shipping and handling of an MRAP (plus approximately $80,000 in annual operation and maintenance costs).

Bottom line, police departments are using MRAPS not because they need them, but because they get them for free from the military. And once the cops have them, they will want to justify them by using them whenever they care to. It's that old problem of when you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

So while the MRAPs were needed when soldiers were encountering triple-stacked anti-tank mines or bundles of artillery shells buried under a road, they are not justified for discretionary use within the United States. They may be useful in exceedingly rare mass shooter/Boston bomber scenarios. But they are certainly grotesque overkill for what they are routinely used for--domestic drug busts, perpetrator standoffs, mass protests, etc.

Hundreds or thousands of civil police departments around the country should not have military vehicles they didn't want until they realized they could have them. They are not worth the ongoing costs in hard cash or public trust and goodwill.