originally published at www.pressdemocrat.com
Huge new police vehicle turns heads
By DAN JOHNSON,
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Published: Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 12:00 p.m.
The sudden appearance of a huge, new police vehicle at various spots in Petaluma may have some people wondering if the Petaluma Police Department has decided to close up its building and go completely mobile.
“Actually, if our police department building fell to the ground, we could run it from this new vehicle,” said Lt. Mike Cook. “It is a mobile command center, and can be used for any disaster emergencies and at all checkpoints we conduct.”
It also can be used during critical situations involving SWAT and hostage/crisis negotiators as well as during special events to promote public safety, and to help with crowd and traffic control.
The vehicle was designed to be a fully functional regional command, control and communications center for Petaluma and the Avoid the 13 Sonoma County DUI Task Force. It is equipped with telephones, multimedia systems, radios, computers and other specialized equipment that help to ensure public safety.
It cost a whopping $450,000, but the city didn’t have to pay a penny for it. The funding breakdown was: $260,000 from a California Office of Traffic Safety Avoid the 13 DUI grant and other OTS grants; $140,000 from the police department’s asset-seizure funds; $40,000 from an annual Homeland Security grant; and $10,000 from the Petaluma Police Officer Association’s Hostage Negotiation Golf Fund account.
The police department was able to obtain a large portion of the money because it is the lead agency for the regional DUI enforcement efforts in Sonoma County to reduce alcohol-related fatalities and injuries, as well as increase public awareness of problems associated with drinking and driving.
The vehicle, which was obtained about two months ago, has created quite a stir.
“We brought it to the Butter & Egg Days Parade, and it generated a lot of positive comments,” Cook said.
Grant money also has enabled the police department to recently purchase four other vehicles — a Chevrolet pickup for commercial-vehicle enforcement ($53,000), a Chevrolet Tahoe for its K-9 program ($50,000), and a mobile pet-adoption trailer ($35,000) and a pickup ($32,000) for its Animal Services division.
The commercial-enforcement pickup and K-9 vehicle were funded by American Investment and Recovery Act grants, while the PETCO Foundation supplied money for the pet-adoption trailer and Animal Services pickup.
“The pickup will be used for education and enforcement involving large trucks,” Cook said.
Jeff Charter, the manager of the Petaluma Animal Shelter & Adoption Center, applied for the grant for the trailer after a pilot program to increase pet adoptions was successful. In 2009, the animal shelter began displaying animals up for adoption at the Petaluma PETCO store, and allowed them to interact with customers. They are housed at the store and taken care of by volunteers.
This increased public exposure helped to increase the number of animals adopted into good homes.
The mobile-adoption trailer will build open the success of the program by allowing animal shelter workers to bring animals up for adoption to special events and thereby enable more of them to be shown to the public.
“We have found that taking the animals to the public reaches people who might not otherwise consider adopting or make a special trip to the center,” Charter said. “The exposure is great for the animals, and allows us to pair adoptable animals with good homes.
“We are very thankful to PETCO for the donation that will allow us to continue this program.”
Tags: militarization, PPD