New 'mobile command vehicle' for emergency response at Wake schools unveiled

Wake County, N.C. (WTVD) -- As the Wake County Public School System continues to address safety concerns, one new tool they're adding to the toolbox is a 'mobile command vehicle,' that district officials said could be a "gamechanger" during an emergency.

"It really is about efficiency and access to information," Wake Superintendent Dr. Robert P. Taylor said. "Any time that we have a school that's in a crisis situation and you have to evacuate the school, then it is about how we have effective communication and how we come together."

Experts say mobile command units aren't commonly used by schools nationwide and are typically used by law enforcement. But in Wake County, the district used a fraction of a state grant to purchase three mobile command vehicles to increase communication.

The command centers serve as a central point where school leaders, safety officials and others can assemble quickly on site or in the area of a crisis to help coordinate response to an event when it occurs, according to national school safety expert Dr. Ken Trump.

"We want to make sure that if the school district has its mobile command center, you're not unintentionally creating a silo where it's just the school officials," Trump said.

Dr. Trump said it's important for the groups responding to emergencies to work together.

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Lance Canterbury, who is the director of security operations at WCPSS, said the vehicle will serve two purposes, such as communicating with families during a lockdown, for example.

"Whether it's a lockdown, or reunification from the site, or off-site, this vehicle would be used there," Canterbury said. "It's not a situation where we're going off-site and law enforcement's involved, but we can set up and do a mass checkout from the site."

Canterbury said the vehicle allows them to blend in and become part of the unified command process and be a resource for law enforcement.

The resource comes as statewide, the crime rate has dropped across North Carolina Schools by more than 7% in the 2023-2024 school year.

Although in Wake County, the district is using advanced technology to enhance safety, Dr. Taylor said the relationship between staff and students are top of mind as well.

"Ultimately, it is about the choices that we make as individuals," Dr. Taylor said. "Those needs will always be there, in terms of having behavioral health specialists, having SROs that can help us manage a campus. But at the end of the day, all of safety goes back to the human element."