The Barnstable County Sheriff's office will soon become the only department in the region with a specially-equipped boat that can detect radiation and other threats.
The Sheriff’s office is buying the boat with a $450,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security. That means the boat comes with certain stipulations on how and when it can be used.
WCAI's Kathryn Eident asked Sheriff James Cummings why his department was the best suited to handle operating a boat like this, instead of the Coast Guard or another group.
"I think the Coast Guard is looking for help," he said. "They just don’t have enough boats to fill this void and the Coast Guard’s mission is different in some ways. Now they’re under the Department of Homeland Security so they’re working more with local public safety agencies, and this is just part of their overall program to protect our coastline.”
He says that his office participates in a port security group that includes the Coast Guard and other public agencies. He says the 31-foot boat can be used from Boston to Providence to track chemical threats or even respond in hostage situations.
“Right now it’s really nobody available to respond," he said. "From what I understand the nearest Homeland Security group that handle something like that is out of Virginia and it would take them a couple of hours to get here by air.”
The boat comes with some special equipment, like a radiation detector. Cummings says it will allow officers to detect radiation on vessels like cargo ships simply by driving by them. The boat could also test for radiation if there was a leak at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth.
“And also the cabin is designed so that it’s a safe and secure environment," he said. "The officers inside the cabin of the vessel wouldn’t be affected by the radiation but we could still be able to detect it and report that back.”
Part of the grant includes training for his staff on how to use the equipment. He says he’s fortunate that some of his staff are former Coast Guard members who were stationed on Cape Cod. He says they’ll train how to deploy from the boat onto bigger vessels like the ferries.
“Most of the ferries are large, out of the water vehicles, the sides of the boat are very high up, so it’s going to require training to get on those boats, hopefully without being detected, and help resolve whatever situation that may be going on," he said.
The boat is slated to arrive in a few weeks. Cummings says he hopes to keep the boat in the water and in-use year round.
