 Hello everyone. My name is Jeremy Hickson. I'm currently the senior advisor over the Sheriff's Office Explorer program and assigned to our Community Engagement Bureau. Today we are going to showcase something that we get asked a lot about and that is our agency patrol vehicles. So today we're going to kind of show you the features and what's included within our patrol vehicles. But a little fun fact that not a lot of people know, our Sheriff's Office we have 1,250 vehicles assigned to us. That ranges from specialty vehicles, patrol vehicles, vehicles that go into different environments for different situations. And so each of them encompassing different tools and different resources for us to be able to provide services to the citizens. Alright, so the very first question we're going to tackle is the appearance of this specific Tahoe. As I alluded to earlier, I'm actually the senior advisor over our Explorer program. So this Tahoe is actually assigned to Explorers and it's wrapped to promote the Explorer program. But it has all the features and the appearance of a normal patrol car that you would see any Deputy Sheriff in Pasco driving. You have the arrowhead, the icon, it says Sheriff. And so another question that we get asked a lot is the lights features and why we have so many lights. And so traditionally for patrol vehicles, you would just see the standard exterior light bar on the top. And while those are very bright, they provide lights for the rear of the vehicle as well as the front of the vehicle. In this case, we have all of our vehicle or all of our lights are interior and there's a couple reasons for that. One, it allows us to install more lights. So as you can see throughout the side of the vehicle, we've got lights pretty much on top. The middle, the bottom. So it allows us to increase the visibility of the patrol vehicle but also longevity wise and maintenance wise. Lights aren't getting exposed to the environmental factors like weather, rainfall, dirt, debris and everything. So it paints a clear picture allowing more motorists and people to actually see the lights. What I really like is the tracer lights. So in case we use the patrol car to block an intersection or a roadway, where as the traditional light bar, we just pretty much have a strobe right here. That's all motorists or people would see. We actually now have trail board lights and lights throughout the side of the vehicle so to increase its visibility. Alright, the inside of the patrol vehicle. So it's just like any other vehicle. You've got your steering wheel, your accelerator, your radio, your air conditioning because it is Florida so we do need AC. But because this is a patrol vehicle, it has a lot more features that allows us to do our job. And so probably the first thing that we want to cover is the most notable and the most obvious is the laptop stand. So every patrol deputy gets issued a laptop. It's a fully functional laptop. This allows us to access our MCT or our mobile computer terminal. That allows us to access information about calls for service that's being reported to dispatch. And so that allows us to look at who's calling, the location, the address, any information that the caller is providing. So before we even get on scene to the call, we already have a picture of what might be happening or what's going on. We have an in-car radio and so this allows us to speak and talk to other deputies that we're working with, as well as dispatch, other entities such as fire rescue or other different units within the Sheriff's office. So we utilize this. Still within the center console, we have the lights and sirens control box or the module. This little switch right here allows us to change what lights are activated and where they're activated. And so the very first switch that turns on the rear lights. So only the lights on the rear of the patrol vehicle, your red and blue lights will get activated. Your second switch that will turn on all the red and blue lights throughout the front of the vehicle, the sides of the vehicle, as well as the rear. And then your third switch, it'll actually, same red and blue lights, but also activate the visor takedown lights in a strobing fashion as well as the headlights. And so this is what allows us to activate our red and blue lights. Our scene left, that's our pretty much our bright lights to the side of the patrol vehicle, specifically on the left-hand side, our takedowns. So we've got two different features. If I press it once, it'll just turn on the white lights on the top visor lights. But if I press it again, all of the lights in the front of the vehicle get activated, including the lights in the grille. And so the scene right, that'll turn on all the lights to the right side of the vehicle, white. So it can illuminate that area. Scene rear, that'll turn all the rear lights that are the back of the patrol car white. And then scene front, this allows us to activate our red and blue lights in a steady, strobe manner, so it's not flashing. We have a couple directional signals. So in case we want traffic to divert to the right or to the left, we can actually change the flash pattern on our rear light bar to indicate which direction we would like traffic to go. We've got three different siren options. We've got a whale, a yelp, and a pier. And each one just provides a different tone. So we might change the siren if we're approaching or going through an intersection. That way motorists can understand or hear something more clear. But there's also oftentimes where we're responding with more than ourselves, two deputies, three deputies. And so with the different sirens, they'll be able to hear different patrol vehicles. Alright, so hopefully this is the only time you get to see the backseat of our patrol vehicles. But because we're a patrol vehicle and we transport a lot of different people, specifically and mainly to the jail, we have a modified backseat. So this allows us to safely transport suspects to the jail. And so anytime that we're transporting suspects to the jail for an alleged crime, we'll put them back here. And the cage allows us to still talk to them but to increase our safety for them as well. We do have safety harnesses in here. So when we are transporting somebody, we do make sure that their seatbelt is on because once we take somebody into custody, we're now in charge of their care and custody and their protection so we make sure that they have a seatbelt. A lot of people also don't know this but we do provide courtesy rides to the citizens if the need arises. So in case we go on a vehicle crash or a disabled vehicle and we can take somebody or transport somebody to a gas station to fill up on gas. And so there are times when we can do that to help people out. And for those times we'll try to make this as comfortable as possible but we make it how it is. Alright so now we're at the trunk or the cargo space of the vehicle and so as a deputy sheriff we get issued different tools and different resources to help us complete our job. And so for one we've got traffic cones so we are in the roadway a lot. Disabled vehicles, vehicle crashes. Anytime we want to try and divert traffic or create a new traffic lane we'll utilize these collapsible traffic cones. Every deputy gets issued a patrol rifle and a patrol shotgun. So these are specifically laid like this because if we get rear-ended we want to make sure that the firearms aren't pointing towards us or the person in the back seat or to the person that is behind us. So we try to lay our firearms horizontally. Every patrol deputy also gets issued a ballistic helmet as well as a ballistic shield. And this is typically for your active shooter responses, your critical incidents. So if we are responding to a call for service that we know somebody has a firearm we'll put this on to really just increase our safety and our protection. We're in Florida so I always carry a pack of water with me because it's always important to stay hydrated. We also have an ambu bag to help us when we're interacting with those who are unconscious, don't have a pulse, it can assist with breathing. Fire extinguisher in case we go on a fire. We've got crime scene tape, our first aid box. Just your basic utensils, band-aids, neosporin, alcohol wipes. Another feature is the stop sticks. So if we have a vehicle that's fleeing from us in an effort to stop the vehicle if a patrol deputy is in front of them they can deploy these stop sticks to help deflate the tires. And so that's pretty much the trunk and a nutshell. We also have lights on top of the tailgate so if we are next to a roadway and we have the lights activated motorists can still see our patrol vehicle so these lights do come in handy a lot. Alright and so one of the good things about having the Chevy Tahoe it does allow us to have a lot of space and a lot of cargo space to store a bunch of this equipment. So that's why our Sheriff's Office we're going to, we're trying to go to an all Tahoe fleet. We do have a couple other vehicles out on the road, the Ford Taurus that's kind of more of our sedan and then our Ford Explorers they also have the SUV style to help store some of this equipment but that's why we're going to the Tahoe's. Alright so that concludes the tour to the patrol vehicle. I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you guys do have any questions about it and you see a deputy on the road feel free to ask. We're more than welcome to kind of explain the features of the patrol car and so with that being said I just wish you guys all have a good day.