Support Units
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Automotive Unit
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Automotive Unit is located at 63360 Britta St., #4 Bend, OR 97703. The shop consists of a 5 bay full service shop for cars and light trucks. The shop also contains a parts stock room, a fabrication bay, a snowmobile/ATV bay, tire storage racks, containers, and offices. The Automotive Unit manages and maintains over 183 vehicles. This number encompasses vehicles used for Patrol, Detectives, C.O.D.E. (Central Oregon Drug Enforcement) and S.W.A.T which combined are driven a million miles annually.
Automotive Shop
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Automotive Unit
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Automotive Unit is located at 63360 Britta St., #4 Bend, OR 97703 and consists of a 5 bay full service shop for cars and light trucks, a parts stock room, a fabrication bay, a snowmobile/ATV bay, tire storage racks, containers, and offices.
The Automotive Unit manages and maintains over 183 vehicles. This number encompasses vehicles used for Patrol, Detectives, C.O.D.E. (Central Oregon Drug Enforcement) and S.W.A.T which combined are driven a million miles annually. Each patrol vehicle averages 50,000 miles on average. Administrative, Jail Transports, Search and Rescue, Communications, Building Maintenance, Civil Division, Training, Chaplaincy, Field Law Enforcement Technicians, Etc are also driven a million miles annually. In addition to the automotive fleet, the Automotive Unit also services and maintains an array of 43 trailers, 17 ATV’s, 15 snowmobiles, 6 boats, generators, armored vehicles, and Mobile Command Units.
The D.C.S.O. Automotive Unit maintains electronic and paper records on all vehicles and equipment. All employees are required to be A.S.E. certified. The Automotive Unit is currently staffed by three dedicated individuals who provide essential law enforcement-specific support; one Fleet Manager and two Fleet Technicians. All Automotive Unit staff can be available for after-hours callouts when needed. The scope of duties preview-gallery-IMG_3578.jpgperformed varies widely. Examples of responsibilities include:
- Preventative Maintenance, inspection, and repair of the entire D.C.S.O. Fleet and equipment.
- Vehicle preparation and up-fitting as well as decommissioning vehicles at end of their life cycle.
- Management of parts and tire inventory for vehicles and equipment.
- Aiding in the preparation and sale of retired and seized vehicles at public auction.
- Design and fabrication on a multitude of constant projects and tasks (welding, woodworking, wiring, etc.).
- Seasonal Tire changes. Studded and studless tires are both used on most Sheriff’s Office vehicles during winter months.
- Vehicle mechanical inspections provided for police agency investigations.
- Vehicle logistics and support for major crime scenes, snow storms, and large fires.
- Roadside assistance and towing for Sheriff’s Office vehicles when necessary.
- Scheduling and transport of vehicles to third party vendors when necessary.
- Vehicle/equipment bids, procurement, and vendor selection.
Communications Shop
The communications shop is responsible for support and maintenance of vehicle mounted computers, radios and cellular phones. This includes programming, diagnosing, user training, testing new equipment, warranty returns, maintaining spare parts inventory, inventory control and acquisition. We work in conjunction with Sheriff’s Office Vehicle Maintenance unit, Sheriff’s Office IT unit, Deschutes County IT dept., Radio & IT technicians with local law enforcement agencies and Radio & IT technicians located at DC911.
80 Mobile Data Tablets to Access Data, ‘MDTs’
These are ruggedized computers manufactured to be installed in a moving vehicle. A wireless connection to county servers is accomplished via a broadband LTE modem. A secure connection is established with a leading manufactures Virtual Private Network, ‘VPN’. Law Enforcement personnel are able to access the same applications & data in their vehicles as they do in the office, most anywhere in the county. Applications include Computer Aided Dispatch, ‘CAD’, Records Management Systems, ‘RMS’, Law Enforcement Data Systems, ‘LEDS’ access and many other specialty applications.
290 Portable Radios That the Sheriff’s Office Personnel Carry with Them On the Go
This equipment consists of public safety grade portable radios. We use both single band and multi band options depending on the role the radio is assigned. Our newer radios have built in GPS to relay LONG/LAT info, encryption, multiple microphones with sophisticated noise cancelling technology and a longer battery life.
191 Mobile Radios Installed in Vehicles
This equipment consists of public safety grade mobile radios. This radio is mounted in our patrol vehicles, Search and Rescue vehicles, Marine units, ATV units and Incident Command vehicles. We have single band in 700/800 range, single band in the VHF range and many dual band units that utilize both frequency ranges. This radio combined with a high quality roof mounted antenna can reach out to the DC911 radio towers located throughout Deschutes County.
120 Cellular Phones
We use three styles of cell phones depending on the needs of our law enforcement personnel. One is a basic services ‘flip phone’ that is assigned to patrol vehicles for use when the deputy needs to use the phone inside & outside of the vehicle. This phone is paired with a hands free device to be used while traveling. This phone compliments the deputy’s smart phone. The second style of phone is a variety of smart phone devices. With built in cameras, internet access, access to county email system and countless applications to assist in day to day tasks.
The third style of phone is a high wattage wired phone to assure our personnel can communicate when needed, this is generally assigned to Search and Rescue vehicles. Cellular phones are used for many applications and their usefulness isn’t slowing down.