Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Mobile police unit to assist in disasters

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 17:29:52 -0500

Mobile police unit to assist in disasters

3/19/2003

By JENNIFER J. HOWARD
[email-masked]

In a world of unknown foes and unforseen disasters, it’s nice to know "The Duke” is on
your side.
If there is a natural disaster, bio-chemical attack, major fire, barricaded gunman, or
large-scale drug raid,
Fulton County’s new mobile command center, aka "The Duke,” is ready to roll.
"It’s designed to respond to incidents or events that require on-site command presence,”
said Lt. Jeff
Bergmann. "It’s like an R.V. on steroids —  a police station on wheels.”
And it’s available to any Fulton County agency that asks for help.
With 11 telephones, seven televisions, five networked computer stations and an Internet
satellite dish, it
serves as a self-contained communications nerve center.

If Fulton County’s emergency 911 center is put out of commission, "The Duke” can be used
as a
back-up, dispatching police and fire units via its on-board interconnect patch panel.
Communications can also be linked to other jurisdictions for real-time conversations.

"It has the capabilities, particularly in the area of homeland security, of being able to
roll to a site of a
man-made situation and give us command capabilities,” said Chief George Coleman.
Through the system, Coleman may view what is happening via satellite from Fulton County’s
main
headquarters in Atlanta. He can view events as they unfold, with no delay. Commanders will
also have
instant access to information.

"Through a satellite system we can monitor up to six different channels at a time to see
what the media
is reporting. Sometimes the media has more information and broadcasts it faster than we
do,” Coleman
said. "In the past we’ve had to work out of a car or out of a smaller platform than what
this gives us.”
The double bombing of a Sandy Springs abortion clinic in January 1997 would have been the
perfect
situation for such a mobile command center. In fact, that incident served as the impetus
for buying the
$390,000 unit.

At the time, Fulton County police were using a Ford van as its mobile command post, which
several
Fulton County commissioners believed was insufficient.

By the fall of 2001, the Police Department had gathered a great deal of information about
vehicle
specifications from other jurisdictions with mobile command posts. The second push for the
machine
occurred after Sept. 11, 2001. The department was in the process of putting together
proposals for "The
Duke,” when terrorists attacked the nation.

A Homeland Security summit the following spring seemed to shore up the deal, as Fulton
County
commissioners became sold on the unit, Bergmann said.

The department took delivery of its new vehicle last November, using money from a federal
Law
Enforcement Block Grant and drug seizures, Bergmann said.

Powered by a 236 hp Cummins diesel engine and a 15,000-watt, liquid-cooled Kohler
generator, "The
Duke” was specifically constructed for Fulton County police by Farber Specialty in
Columbus, Ohio. It is
housed at the Fulton County-Charlie Brown Airport.

Sprouting from the top is a 25-foot mast cam with a video camera linked to a 43-inch
outdoor plasma
screen, which can be used to provide attack plans to SWAT teams. It’s also linked to the
two monitors
inside the machine.

"The plasma television screen allows us to – if we are in a long-term situation like a
plane crash or
man-made situation – we can set up and conduct on-site instruction for 50 people,” Coleman
said. "We
can pipe the television through it, we can put our own VCR training tapes in it. We have a
situation board
where you can write on it in the vehicle and it’s displayed on the plasma screen outside.
Where normally
you could have four or five officers inside to give them a briefing, you can hold a
briefing for as many
people as can gather around to view the screen.”

An Internet satellite dish on top allows police to retrieve information from virtually
every source, while a
super-zoom camera rotates 355 degrees and has optional infrared capability for night use.
In the forward cabin are five laptop work stations which can dispatch police, fire,
sheriff’s deputies,
emergency medical services personnel and marshals.

Although they are in close quarters, dispatchers may speak without interfering with one
another since the
workstation headsets include noise canceling microphones. At each station, there is also a
telephone,
Internet connection and AC/DC power. Currently 135 channels of the possible 160 channels
in the Fulton
County trunk system are programmed into the command center’s computer. Through the patch
panel,
Fulton County may marry its tactical channels with other jurisdictions, once again, to
make
communications faster.

A small meeting room is in the rear that includes five television/ VCR units connected to
the satellite dish
on top of the vehicle. In the center body is a small refrigerator and privy.
The chassis was built by Freightliner Corp. and shipped to Grumman Corp. which built the
aluminum
I-beam body. The unit was then sent to Farber, which installed the apparatus and computer
equipment.
"We hope we don’t have to use it for its designed purpose. But we are also not naive,”
Bergmann said.
"We have response capability for not just the Fulton County Police Department, but for any
agency in
Fulton County. It is the position of Chief Coleman that no reasonable request for
assistance will be
refused.”

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