By Fallan Patterson

Staff Writer

The St. Cloud Police Department is topping off its year-long wish list with a $120,000 mobile command unit without touching a dime of taxpayer funds. The St. Cloud City Council unanimously approved March 24 the usage of $198,000 in forfeiture money seized in several illegal criminal enterprises such as drug trafficking and money laundering cases for police department upgrades such as the mobile command unit, training and tactical equipment.

“Our budget is not impacting the city's budget,” SCPD Chief Pete Gauntlett said. “We wouldn't be able to do half of the things we're doing, due to budget constraints, without the seized funds.”

In the year Gauntlett has led the force — his swearing-in anniversary is Saturday — Gauntlett estimates his police department has purchased roughly $800,000 in patrol cars, building upgrades, motorcycles, computers, weapons, uniforms and training, all without upending the city's budget.

“We've really scattered it out,” he said, adding a police department “very seldom” can afford such upgrades without taxpayer funds. “We're taking advantage of a progressive program.”

Councilman Tom Griffin is proud of Gauntlett and the police department for sparing taxpayers' pockets.

“It just feels really good to have a police chief and department on top of things,” he said. “Nobody wants to place additional burden on the taxpayers and the city's budget.”

While strict federal guidelines outline what seized funds can be used for — officers' salaries cannot be paid with it—Gauntlett's agency has dwindled its account down by upgrading in almost every department.

“We've drawn it down so we're going to slow down and allow the account to fill up again,” he said. “The majority of what we set out to do has been accomplished already.”

Mobile command unit

Nearly 50 pages detail how the 1990 diesel-powered ambulance will be gutted to fit four workstations capable of hosting Internet, telephone, television and video monitors for the mobile command unit. The vehicle will be soundproof and have the flooring replaced, the seats reupholstered and the center console refurbished to accommodate updated control panels.

The unit also will be equipped with a $15,000 hostage negotiator phone and $20,000 worth of state-of-the-art computer software and equipment such as a retractable 360-degree video camera, which will rise from the top of the vehicle for a better view.

“When it's done, it's virtually going to be a brand new vehicle,” Gauntlett said, adding a new mobile command unit costs upward of half-a-million dollars.

Gauntlett expects to get at least 10 years out of this unit and hopes to repeat the experience once this vehicle is no longer useful.

The unit will be stored at the police department, where Gauntlett is currently looking at renovation ideas to construct a garage or shelter for the vehicle.

As far as its uses, Gauntlett easily rattled off at least 15 different scenarios the unit could be used for, such as “a house fire to a barricaded gunman in a house to a missing child,” he said.

The unit will be set up at annual festivals such as the Fourth of July event at the St. Cloud lakefront, used for educational purposes at homeowner association meetings or for neighborhood protection after hurricane damage.

“There's a laundry list of things it can be used for. If we're going to be (at a scene) for 24 hours, it's essentially a mobile office,” Gauntlett said. “Most of the middle to larger agencies have similar set ups.

St. Cloud Fire Rescue will also have access to the unit and it will be used to aid neighboring Osceola policing agencies, if needed, Gauntlett said.  

The ambulance will arrive today at PRIDE Enterprises in Volusia County and remain there for up to 90 days while being overhauled. Pride Enterprises was one of only two companies, neither was local, to bid on the project. PRIDE's $64,475 bid was a third of the cost of the Deerfield Beach-based bidder because it is part of a prison rehabilitation program.

“It is hard to compete with the prison because they charge you virtually no labor,” Gauntlett said.

PRIDE (Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises) also constructs park benches, office furniture and custom embroidery, among other products and services, in an effort to provide training in a trade the inmate can pursue after he or she is released from prison.

According to its bid, PRIDE completed similar vehicle restoration projects for two Florida police departments last year: Miramar Police Department in Broward County paid $54,545 for a SWAT vehicle and Greenacres Police Department in Palm Beach County paid $17,910 for a special response team vehicle.