The $516,000 center includes a large trailer with Internet, mapping and communications equipment and two mobile surveillance units that feature cameras atop 37-foot masts and six drones for aerial reconnaissance activities.
“This provides technology capabilities and an area to work during a major incident,” said Westmoreland County Public Safety Director Roland Mertz.
The center, built by Mobile Concepts in Mt. Pleasant, was put online last month and has already been used as emergency crews responded to tornadoes that swept through the county this month. It was also dispatched in September to assist the Pennsylvania State Police in providing security for the Sept. 11 ceremony in Somerset County.
The new mobile response unit replaces the department’s outdated command post that had been used since 2004.
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