LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is set to get an upgrade for SWAT unit.
Metro officials — along with Rep. Susie Lee — announced $1 million in federal funding Friday that will go toward a new SWAT mobile command vehicle.
The current vehicle that Metro has was introduced in 2007. Officials say a technological upgrade has been needed.
"This is a game-changer for our operations," said Metro Deputy Chief Dori Koren, who oversees the department's SWAT unit, at Metro headquarters Friday morning. "Our SWAT is certainly one of the busiest, and best, in the country."
Officials say the current vehicle has been used close to 2,000 times since it was introduced, including during the aftermath of the Oct. 1, 2017, Las Vegas shooting, and last year's deadly shooting incident at UNLV's campus.
Over the past five years, Koren said, the vehicle has been used for over 500 emergency responses, including dangerous hostage and barricade situations.
The new vehicle is expected to cost close to $1 million, though the price tag might go a bit over that figure. Lee took credit for helping to secure the $1 million in federal funding that will go toward the purchase.
Officials say they're not exactly sure when it will be delivered, but that it could be in use sometime within the next year.
The current command center basically looks like a jazzed-up RV, but with more screens and work stations. The new one, officials say, will be bigger, allowing for more people to work in it.
"The new one's going to be a lot wider, it will give more room for more monitors," said Bryan Peterson, Metro's SWAT commander. "We'll have the capability for not only drone coverage, we also have robots and armored vehicles, which are equipped with cameras. In the new one, all of those feeds will be able to come back."
Peterson said the new vehicle — with all its capabilities — will likely cut setup time by close to 15 minutes, which would be critical time, he says, for law enforcement in a potentially deadly situation.
The $1 million in federal monies will be through community project funding for the 2024 fiscal year, according to a spokesman for Lee.
