Four new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter are now in active service with Victoria Police’s public order response operation.
The Operation Response Unit (ORU) vehicles are capable of getting large numbers of tactical response officers into a location more efficiently than regular marked passenger vehicles.
Typically only two officers could fit in a ORU vehicle containing operation and crowd control equipment, with 15 SUVs replaced by a single ORU Sprinter.
The new troop-carriers are part of a $35 million funding effort over five years to increase ORU capacity to respond to critical incidents, adding to the 60 specialty tactical response vehicles.
Victoria Police tells AutoTalk the Sprinter chassis have been given “a special fit to Victoria Police’s operational and equipment needs,” by equipment and emergency vehicle re-manufacturer Bell Environmental, in Sunshine North. Bell also fits-out SES and CFA trucks.
The streamlined fleet, acting superintendent Greg Barras says, will also carry 40 additional highly-trained police and all the equipment they could possible require storage for, meaning shorter wait times for the cavalry.
“The quicker ORU can respond to public order incidents allows police to better manage emerging and dynamic incidents,” Barras says.
“The impact of these new transporters will give ORU an increased capability to swiftly intervene in any public event where people act in a manner that puts the rest of the community or police in danger,” he states.
Barras says the new rigs are just one one part of the department’s clamp-down on large-scale disputes.
“The transporters are part of Victoria Police’s strong focus on increasing the capability and capacity of its response to public order issues,” he explains.
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