The Geary County Commission gave approval to Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf to move forward with the purchase of a mobile command unit.

The Sheriff’s Department and Junction City Police Department is teaming up to purchase the vehicle using drug forfeiture proceeds. Currently Geary County does not have a mobile command unit and has to borrow one from either Fort Riley and Riley County when one is needed.

“Probably one of the more recent ones was the drowning at Milford Lake on Christmas Eve,” said Sheriff Wolf. “We borrowed a command post from Fort Riley to come out and set up out there. This is just somewhere, especially for the cold temperatures, for the guys to come in and get warmed up.”

It would be utilized for other events including Sundown Salute in Junction City.

“If they do make an arrest or get a case or whichever there in the park, they can go into this command post and do their paperwork right quick and be right back on scene, without having to go downtown to the police department or sheriff’s department or go straight to the jail with the individual that they arrest.”

Both Sheriff Wolf and Junction City Chief of Police, Tim Brown looked into purchasing a new vehicle but decided that purchasing a used one would be more reasonable financially.

“We finally found one that just absolutely will fit our needs perfectly. It is in Ohio and we are working on the purchase of this vehicle right now.”

The mobile command vehicle is a 2000 LDV/Freightliner. It is priced at $85,000. The JCPD and Sheriff’s Department will purchase the vehicle jointly using drug forfeiture proceeds. No tax money would be used to purchase the vehicle.

Wolf explained that the equipment inside of the vehicle will match up with the current equipment used by both the JCPD and Sheriff’s Office,” the only thing that we will have to change is the tuning so that it will tune to our frequency.”

The vehicle would be available for use by all emergency services in Geary County, not just the JCPD and Sheriff’s Office.

The Junction City Commission will still need to approve the purchase. Tim Brown, Chief of Police, is expected to go in front of the city commission on the matter during their next scheduled meeting.