Rockville Centre puts new police vehicles in service

The Rockville Centre Police Department has put a new mobile command post and a new patrol car into service to replace the one that was destroyed by a fleeing burglary suspect who deliberately crashed into it in July 2008.

The command post is a refurbished Rockville Centre Fire Department ambulance that has been outfitted with a grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security. The vehicle includes multiple workstations, computers, printers and scanners, as well as other emergency response equipment.

The grant was used to purchase additional radio equipment compatible with other local, county, state and federal agencies for use during incidents; a multi-use generator to sustain emergency operations for prolonged periods of time; and night vision devices capable of surveillance and law enforcement operations in low-light environments.

The new patrol car carries the same number, 184, as the vehicle involved in the 2008 incident when the burglary suspect, fleeing northbound on Peninsula Boulevard, drove his car head-on into the waiting cruiser. Police Officer Ernest Ziegler, now a sergeant in the department, was injured in the crash.