New Mobile Police Precinct In New Brunswick

The New Brunswick Police Department has a new Mobile Community Police Precinct.

The department received the 2011 AM General 6x6 Utility Truck at no cost through the Department of Defense 1033 Program, which allows local agencies to obtain surplus military and government equipment.

The 2011 Utility Truck had been as a radio/communications vehicle for the U.S. military.

Police received the truck with fewer than 500 miles on the odometer. So, they gave it a “fresh coat of paint and retrofitted the interior to serve as a mobile community police precinct.”

The police department bought its first mobile police precinct in 1996 and has deployed it all around the city in areas when an extra police presence was needed.

“The original mobile police precinct continues to serve the police department and our communities well,” Police Director Anthony A. Caputo said in a prepared statement. “It is always a welcome addition to any neighborhood where it is deployed. I look forward to this new vehicle being just as successful and well received as the original, and I am confident it will serve as another tool which improves the community policing efforts of our officers.”

It will primarily be used for community policing and as a mobile precinct, but it can also serve as as an emergency response vehicle in floods because it has a high wheel base and 6x6 driving capabilities.

New Brunswick sustained significant flooding when Hurricane Floyd hit. Route 18 was underwater and the former police headquarters, near the banks of the Raritan River, sustained severe damage. Police had to evacuate the building and were never able to return.

“This vehicle is capable of traversing flooded roadways typically (impassable) for conventional vehicles, and has enough interior space to shelter and transport stranded residents to a safer location,” police said.

Police expect to deploy the new Mobile Community Police Precinct over the next few weeks. Residents may see it in neighborhoods where the department’s Neighborhood Police Teams patrol, and on Easton Avenue during upcoming Rutgers Big Ten football games.

“I encourage any resident or visitor to walk up to the mobile precinct and say hello to our officers,” Caputo said. “Face to face, friendly communication between the public and the police is the best way to improve positive relationships and strengthen the bonds between the police and the neighborhoods we are committed to serve.”

Photos courtesy New Brunswick police