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The Blount County Sheriff’s Office has a new member of its vehicle fleet.
The sheriff’s office unveiled Wednesday their new Mobile Command and Communications Center, which has been a plan in the making for a couple of years.
U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. joined Sheriff James Berrong to dedicate the 40-foot-long mobile command center that was purchased with money from a federal grant and from the sheriff’s office drug fund.
About $246,000 of the $350,000 spent to purchase the command center was provided by the Community Oriented Police Services Technology grant, Berrong said. The rest of the cost was paid for out of the sheriff’s office drug fund, which comes from money and property confiscated from people convicted of drug crimes.
Berrong said the Mobile Command and Communications Center will be used during “critical incidents and disasters” and be available as a base of operation for sobriety checkpoints and other multi-jurisdiction events.
The center will also be available for Maryville and Alcoa to use when needed, Berrong said.
“It’s a sheriff’s office vehicle, but a multi-jurisdiction tool,” Berrong said.
Thanks to Duncan
Duncan was a key in getting the sheriff’s office the federal grant, Berrong said.
“Thanks for what you’ve done for this community and law enforcement,” Berrong said to Duncan as the congressman handed over the command center keys to Berrong and Blount County Vice Mayor Dave Bennett.
Duncan said Congress takes requests from local officials for grant money and the sheriff’s office applied for the grant a couple of years ago. He said they have been able to get “many millions (of dollars)” in grants approved for multiple projects in Blount County.
“We went to work on it and we got them the money,” Duncan said.
Berrong took Duncan and State Rep. Doug Overbey on a tour of the command center which includes an area for mobile dispatch, a rear conference room, lavatory and small galley.
The step van is loaded full of technology to allow a large number of emergency responders to have multiple ways to communicate. The dispatch communications system provides emergency personnel with the capability of communicating with surrounding counties. It also allows law enforcement to directly communicate with local fire departments and Emergency Medical Services.
SMART Board
The conference room has a SMART Board, which is a touch-sensitive display connected to a computer. The command center also has a video surveillance system that allows authorities to park the command center away from the “danger zone” at a critical incident scene and still zoom in on the location, Community Outreach Coordinator Jarrod Millsaps said.
Millsaps said three to four officers will be trained to drive and operate the mobile communications center, and dispatchers will be trained in operating the communication system.
The Mobile Command and Communications Center was made in Gallatin by Loyalty Mobile Innovations Inc. Vice President Ken Lewellyn said his company works closely with law enforcement clients to fulfill each department’s individual needs.
“We try to tailor it to that department,” Lewellyn said.
He said most of the time is spent researching the client’s needs, and it only takes eight to 12 weeks to actually make the mobile command center.
The company specializes in high-end motor homes, SWAT trucks, bomb trucks and mobile command centers, Lewellyn said.
He said the company also installed the technology tools needed by the sheriff’s office in the mobile command center, which has a two-year warranty.