News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Police Department hoping to start bid process to receive a command trailer.
Major Ken Sircy said the department is looking at a 31-foot-long trailer that will serve mainly as a command center during emergency events. He said the need for such a tool was made clear after the 2020 tornado.
“This is something that will be designed from the ground up to provide connectivity and workstations so that you can have a number of support and command elements inside there,” Sircy said. “To provide whatever kind of communication link and support that a critical scene may need.”
Sircy said other emergency departments in the county have their own versions and setups of command trailers. He said you can never have enough resources in those situations, and this will help the police department utilize its own resources.
Sircy said the department has budgeted about $200,000 in this year’s budget to purchase a trailer. He said to make sure the trailer isn’t used sparingly for those significant disasters, they also plan to use it monthly for negotiator training.
“Mostly it will give us our own workstations,” Sircy said. “I believe there will be eight workstations in this thing, meaning computer connectivity to hook up to it, LED TVs in there with connectivity to news networks, and some external security type cameras and lighting, just things that we don’t have at all now.”
Sircy said they are hopefully going to send the advertisement out for bids this week.
