Brevard police agencies embrace high-tech mobile command units

BREVARD COUNTY, FL — When the Mother’s Day wildfires raged across Brevard County three years ago, fire officials called on Orange County for a mobile command vehicle to head operations for the Cocoa front.

Brevard County Sheriff’s Office’s mobile command vehicle, the only one on the Space Coast at the time, already was being used in Malabar.

The situation is not the same today. No less than six Space Coast agencies have the high-tech vehicles, with at least one more starting a fundraising campaign to purchase a command unit.

The self-contained vehicles are equipped with computers, radios, video and satellite tools to serve as mobile headquarters for law enforcement and rescue personnel at the scenes of emergencies.

Until recently, authorities coordinated emergency scenes out of the back of their police cars or out in the elements. Some local departments had makeshift mobile command posts converted from recreation vehicles or passenger buses.

Mobile command vehicles can be pricey, with costs for the local units as high as $600,000. Most were paid for almost entirely with federal grants or funds seized from criminals. Still, some question whether the pricey units are worth expenditure in a time of tight budgets.

But the agencies who own the command posts say they are invaluable tools and see a benefit of having duplicates across the county.

“It’s kind of like insurance. It’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it,” said Titusville Assistant Police Chief John Lau, whose department had its command post delivered earlier this year. “If you’re going to have a public agency, you need to be fully equipped.”

County’s first post

Brevard County Sheriff’s Office was the first to have a mobile command post, buying it in 2003 with a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Since then, the post — a trailer pulled by a surplus truck from the county’s solid waste department — has been used more than 6,200 hours, Maj. Mike DeMorat said. That’s the equivalent of about eight and half months of continuous use.

Maintenance costs are minimal, about $21,000 since 2003, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s command post has been called into action during all of the recent natural disasters to strike the Space Coast, including the 2004 hurricanes, flooding from Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay, the 2008 Mother’s Day fires and two massive wildfires that struck the northern end of the county this year.

It also is used for special events that draw large crowds and temporarily housed dispatchers in Cocoa Beach and Palm Bay when the respective city’s communications centers underwent renovations.

“It just shows it’s being used and it’s certainly a very strong asset to have,” DeMorat said. “Overall, we’ve gotten our usage out of it.”

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