Longview, Gregg County unveil new equipment ensuring community safety
Posted/updated on: January 24, 2025 at 4:24 pm
LONGVIEW – On Thursday, a new Command Bus and Bearcat were unveiled after Gregg County and the City of Longview partnered to update old equipment.
The Gregg County Sheriff’s Office and the Longview Police and Fire agencies will be able to use these vehicles. This is the third command center for the city and county. The last time the mobile command post was updated was in 2006 and the last “Bearcat” was updated in 2009.
Longview Police Chief Anthony Boone shared how the new equipment will benefit the city in several ways. “It could be used for natural disasters. It could be used for any type of larger crime scenes. If we have an ongoing active shooter or barricaded subject event, so it will have multiple uses at the city and the county level,” Boone said.
Gregg County Sheriff Maxey Cerliano spoke about the updates the new Bearcats possess. “This one’s a little bit larger. As you can see, it sits up a little higher. It’s a four-wheel drive, our other vehicle is not. It also is a four-door crew cab. The original unit, we has a zone that we have is only a two door,” Cerliano said.
Cerliano spoke with our news partner, KETK, about how the Bearcat can be used as a rescue vehicle for future purposes.
“Sometimes when we’re running a warrant, but if we do face a situation to where we have an active shooter or something, as has happened in the past, we’ve been able to utilize the vehicle as a rescue vehicle,” Cerliano said.
Another upgrade that comes with the new command center is the new technology’s ability to connect to different agencies to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“The front command center here would be like, where the incident commanders would update the local elected officials, the mayor, the judge, the commissioners, the city council people. It’s where they would collaborate with, again, our state and our federal partners,” Longview Fire Chief J.P Steelman said.
The city and county have split the costs of vehicles and will work together in case of any emergency.
