BENTONVILLE -- The importance of having a mobile command unit hit home with the Benton County Sheriff's Office in March when deputies searched for a drowning victim at Beaver Lake, Sgt. Shannon Jenkins said.
"You are able to have your command center in one spot," said Jenkins, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office. "We will have everything at one location. It's like bringing the office with you.
"We respond to a variety of calls, and some include search-and-rescue situations, lake incidents, SWAT calls, mobile field force operations and homicide scenes," she said.
The Sheriff's Office was on the scene for two weeks for recovery efforts of the drowning victim, Jenkins said. The SWAT team was called last year in inclement weather. The mobile unit could have served as the main base and protected deputies from the weather, she said.
"A mobile command unit would be utilized during numerous situations the Sheriff's Office deals with throughout the year," she said.
Kelly Cantrell, a spokeswoman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office, said the department doesn't have a mobile command unit, but the county's Department of Emergency Management has one.
Emergency Management will bring the unit and staff with it when the Sheriff's Office requests, Cantrell said. The office used the mobile unit when there was a drowning in the spring at War Eagle, she said.
Mobile command units are used by law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
Capt. Philip Pevehouse said the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office got its mobile command unit in the years after Sept. 11, 2001, through a grant program.
The vehicles are useful when a department has to move operations and deputies could be in the field for a long time, he said.
The Tulsa, Okla., County Sheriff's Office has had its mobile command unit for at least 13 years, Sgt. Mike Moore said. It probably only gets called a handful of times a year for work such as criminal investigations, and it can be used in natural disaster situations such as tornadoes and flooding, he said.
"The benefit is we have it when we need it," Moore said.
Benton County Chief Deputy Meyer Gilbert told the Quorum Court's Finance Committee in July the Sheriff's Office wanted to buy a mobile command unit. The office has the money for the vehicle. The court is expected to approve the request at its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Justice of the Peace Joel Edwards said he supports a mobile command unit. He said he believes the Sheriff's Office needs it. Edwards said he knew the drowning victim in Beaver Lake, and the recovery effort took weeks with some people sleeping in tents.
It will take about eight months before the Sheriff's Office will receive the unit from Farber Specialty Vehicles in Columbus, Ohio, Jenkins said.
The Sheriff's Office hasn't had a mobile command unit as part of its inventory, Jenkins said. The Sheriff's Office did on occasion use a mobile unit maintained by Benton County's Department of Emergency Management, she said.
The county paid $366,109 for the vehicle in 2007 and upgrades in 2013 cost about $54,000, said Brenda Guenther, county comptroller.
The Sheriff's Office was offered the unit before it was sold, but Sheriff Shawn Holloway told the Quorum Court he wanted a smaller vehicle.
The county sold the older mobile command unit to Polk County, Mo., for $240,000 last year. Emergency Management now has a communications trailer, said Robert McGowen, county public safety administrator.
The Sheriff's Office's 38-foot-long unit will be equipped with seven work stations, a communication center, a conference/command center and an interview/workroom, Jenkins said.
NW News on 09/23/2019