Maitland City Talk

Although the city of Maitland is a small community that enjoys a relatively low crime rate, we have a significant daily population that is much larger than our residential population. The city of Maitland is located in the center of the Orlando Metropolitan Statistical area, having a population of more than 2.1 million, and is adjacent to the city of Orlando that has a nationally recognized violent crime problem. Our city also has several locations that have been identified as “high risk” by the Department of Homeland Security including the Orlando office of the FBI, IRS and the Jewish Federation of Orlando.

The Maitland Police Department recently added a state of the art mobile command vehicle to their fleet in an effort to be better equipped and prepared to respond to any major incident. The story behind its acquisition is one worth telling. With the cost of building a mobile command vehicle averaging one quarter of a million dollars, budgeting for such a vehicle would be difficult at best. This latest piece of crime fighting equipment was acquired without spending any taxpayer money; in fact, it was paid for completely with money seized from criminal activity and was constructed by prison inmates.

The Maitland Police Department partners with federal law enforcement agencies that include the FBI, DEA, IRS and the United States Secret Service. This partnership not only acts as a force multiplier allowing our officers to work hand-and-hand with our federal law enforcement counterparts, it also gives our agency the ability to directly benefit from the fruits of forfeited money, vehicles and real property seized during long-term criminal investigations.

The truck, used as the basis for the mobile command vehicle, is a 2003 Ford F-450 Super-Duty. The vehicle was originally at the Maitland Fire Department serving as a fire rescue truck. As the truck reached its term serving in that capacity, Police Chief Doug Ball and then Fire Chief Ken Neuhard approached the CITY MANAGER about “trading” equipment. The police department had a portable light trailer that the fire department needed and the fire department had a truck that the police department needed. Mr. Williams agreed with the two department heads and the rest, as they say, is history.

The mobile command vehicle was constructed by PRIDE (Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises). PRIDE is a nationally recognized inmate training company operating agriculture, sewn products, graphics, manufacturing and services facilities throughout the state of Florida. PRIDE operates 41 training centers providing work and training to inmates in 29 state correctional facilities. PRIDE is a private, not-for-profit corporation founded in 1981 by the state legislature. PRIDE is financially self-sufficient and receives no appropriated funding from government. All programs are operated through sale of goods, with “profits” from work programs being reinvested to further PRIDE's Mission. In this case, the work was completed by inmates at Tomoka State Prison in Volusia County.

As a part of the incident command structure, a mobile command post is a necessity. The traditional ways of organizing the command post from the trunk of a patrol car or the hood of a fire-rescue truck are obsolete and antiquated. The city of Maitland deserves, and should expect, a professional and organized emergency response. The Maitland Police Department is prepared to handle any critical incident with the highest level of trained and qualified staff, and the most state of the art equipment available to facilitate the needs of the community and the organization.

Written by:

Lt. Ralph Palmer

Maitland Police Department