DRUG UNIT UNVEILS COMMAND CENTER

Overhauled Ambulance Carries Evidence Gathering Equipment, Protective Gear

To help cope with the increasing number of methamphetamine labs in the
Kanawha Valley, the Metro Drug Enforcement Network Team now has a
mobile command center it can transport to the scene of a lab takedown.

The overhauled ambulance, which was donated by the Kanawha Valley
Ambulance Authority, will be used to carry evidence gathering
equipment and protective gear.

Cpl. Tony Payne, a detective with the drug unit, said officers were
given about $2,500 from the Metro Drug unit's budget to outfit the
truck

The vehicle, which was used for critical care patients, will give
officers who have to collect evidence from a lab a place to suit up
and properly store what they find.

"That's the main benefit," Payne said during the vehicle's unveiling
earlier this week. "We've needed something like this for the past few
years."

Payne said whenever they are called to a lab -- which happens at all
hours of the day and night -- they would have the gear they need in
one location.

Detectives who break down the lab don't haul chemical waste; they just
collect material needed to mount a prosecution.

Federal mandates dictate that cleanups be done by a certified agency.

The vehicle also gives detectives a command post if they encounter
something they didn't expect and a decontamination unit will keep the
officers from carrying off any hazardous material

Lt. Steve Neddo, the drug unit's commander, said the vehicle allows
his officers more of a presence when they are on a bust.

"It let's the public know, yes, we are here," he said.

Even though the drug unit consists of undercover officers, Neddo said
cleaning a drug lab is never a clandestine operation.

Because most of the labs they bust come from tips, Neddo said when
someone sees that vehicle, they know information they provided was put
to use.

Stressing the importance of getting the right stuff to make a
conviction, Neddo said the vehicle will give them a better place to
store what they collect. "If there is going to be a case made, we have
to sample chemicals and collect evidence," Neddo said.