Category: Community

The Volusia County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office’s Jeep unit includes 18 volunteers, all highly trained and certified to assist in search-and-rescue and recovery efforts. Jeepin’ Central Florida met with the unit’s commander, Lt. Don Taylor, to learn more about his off-road squad.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career in law enforcement? 

I served in the U.S. Coast Guard from October 1990 through January 1996. It was during my service as a boarding officer in the USCG where I found my calling. My last station was Tybee Island in Georgia. I moved my family back to Volusia County, where my wife was born and raised.

In January 1996, I enrolled in the Basic Law Enforcement Academy at Daytona State College. Once I completed BLE, I applied for a deputy position at the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. In September, I was hired and began training. My first assignment was in the civil section in Daytona, serving nonenforceable process. After a short time, I was offered another position serving enforceable process out of the DeLand office.

Two years later, I transferred to patrol and learned how to be a deputy. I applied to be a field training officer and trained new deputies. I was promoted to sergeant in October 2002. I was assigned to patrol and, the following year, I transferred to investigations. I returned to patrol a year later and, in 2006, I transferred to the civil section. In January 2011, I was promoted to lieutenant and have served as the assistant commander for communications for Districts 2, 3 and 4, and in my current assignment at special operations. 

What is your mission, and how does the Jeep group support it? 

The Volunteer Jeep Unit provides the sheriff’s office with specialized equipment and volunteers to assist with search-and-rescue and recovery efforts in areas not easily accessible by patrol vehicles. 

What is your area of operation? 

My current position as the assistant commander for special operations covers the entire county. The units assigned to my area of responsibility include aviation, marine, dive, range, airport security, crime prevention, school resource deputies, the Citizens Observation Program, Citizens Volunteer Auxiliary Program and Chaplain Program, and the Volunteer Jeep Unit. 

How many members did you start with, and how many do you have now? 

The initial group of Jeep volunteers started with 16 members. We have 18 members now, with several more applications being processed.

How is the group structured?

Sgt. Omar McKnight coordinates with the Jeep unit coordinator to plan for training and meetings. The Volunteer Jeep Unit’s training coordinator is a certified 4×4 off-road instructor along with many other certifications. There are two teams, Gold and Green (the sheriff’s office colors), and each team has a team leader and an assistant team leader who communicate instructions with the members assigned to their team.

Do you need more members? What qualifications, screening and training are required to join? 

We are always looking for more volunteers to join our Jeep unit. Each volunteer is required to have an off-road-capable Jeep to join. Candidates must complete a volunteer application, pass a background check, have none of the automatic disqualifiers such as previous felony convictions, excessive traffic violations in the last three years, or the sale of illegal drugs. The following are qualifications to become a member:

• Be a minimum of 18 years old.
• Possess a valid Florida driver’s License.
• Own a Jeep Wrangler (or similar Jeep style) to allow for off-road navigation.
• Have the desire to be a team member to assist with office work or search and rescue.
• Possess valid vehicle insurance, including a declaration page and proof of liability and personal injury insurance coverage.
• Pass a background investigation.
• Successfully complete all training provided with a passing score.
• Complete the volunteer waiver of liability form.
• Successfully complete six months as a probationary member.

In order to successfully complete the probationary period, each member must attend the basic agency training class, at least four of six monthly meetings and training sessions, and online Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) training.

Each volunteer must complete Incident Command School (ICS) 100, 200, 700 and 800 and classroom CERT courses within the first 12 months to continue as a volunteer. In order to be eligible to assist in search-and-rescue and recovery operations, volunteers also must be certified in first aid and CPR and train in crime scene procedures, search patterns and person-tracking techniques with an agency instructor.

What types of calls do members of the Jeep group answer? 

The Jeep unit is available to respond and assist with search-and-rescue and recovery operations as needed, including missing persons or downed aircrafts located in areas not easily accessible to non-off-road vehicles. The Jeep unit also participates in parades and other community events. For instance, the unit participated in the University High School homecoming parade by escorting the homecoming court.

What work has the Jeep group done that you are most proud of? 

The Jeep unit eight Jeeps that participated in the National Night Out event on Oct. 3. The attendees were extremely interested in how the sheriff’s office is working with citizens, such as the Jeep unit volunteers to increase our capabilities through means other than increasing the bottom line. 

Do you work with other agencies and Jeep groups? 

On Jan. 15, Corp. Arthur Madden led a convoy of 14 members of the Pasco Sheriff Volunteer Jeep Search and Rescue Unit to assist in the search for an elderly man who went missing. 

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Sheriff Michael J. Chitwood and I attended the “Jeep Beach” picnic in Daytona Beach, and we instantly noticed the passion so many in attendance had for serving their community. The sheriff was convinced we needed to start a volunteer Jeep unit. Corp. Madden was instrumental with providing assistance to start the Jeep unit.

The coordinator, Jeoff Freed, is a Jeep enthusiast and was instrumental in recruiting volunteers for the Jeep unit. Jeoff has worked diligently on getting all the volunteers to complete their training and creating a Facebook page for the unit. In the short time I have spent working with the Jeep unit volunteers, I have learned they are one big family and they want to help make their community a better place.

It was Monday, Aug 28, two days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Rockport, Texas, when I first heard Coty Byers was going to Houston. Many of you know Coty as the president of Blackwater Jeepers. You may not know he is an independent trucker. He and his girlfriend and copilot, Billi Gibson, were on the road when the hurricane struck. They put the word out that they were coming back to Central Florida to pick up donated supplies and haul them to Texas, where flooding and evacuations would kill at least 80 people and leave thousands homeless and destitute.

Plenty of Room

Coty and Billi were due to arrive Thursday, Aug. 31, and leave Friday morning. The plan was for all the Central Florida Jeep groups to deliver the supplies they collected to a Tampa Jeep Krewe event in Brandon, Fla., on Thursday. Coty and Billi would be there to load their truck before heading to Texas the next morning.

Theo Papapanos volunteered his New Port Richey restaurant, Christo’s, as the drop-off point for my group, the ODT Jeepers. The entire Jeepin’ community spent the week spreading the word and gathering supplies. At one point, my brother Eric and I hit the Walmart. We packed six overfilled shopping carts’ worth of supplies into my wife Martina’s full-size SUV.

When we arrived at Christo’s to drop off our donations, the restaurant was already packed with supplies. They were running out of room quickly, and this was just the drop-off point for the ODT Jeepers. After speaking with several of the other Jeep group leaders, I learned that everyone was collecting more supplies than Coty’s 53-foot semi could hold.

Blackwater’s vice president, Al Feliz, had a plan. He knew that Kathleen McDougall, a Jeeper and the manager of a U-Haul franchise, was using one of her trucks as a drop-off point for the Jeepers in her area. The 27-foot truck was about half-full, and Al connected me with Kathleen. I still can’t believe what a great deal Kathleen gave me on a one-way rental. She even delivered the truck to the TJK drop-off point on Thursday. Al quickly arranged for two drivers for the U-Haul. We had Coty’s 53-foot trailer and half of a 27-foot U-Haul truck for the overflow items. We thought the emergency was over. If only we knew.

When Coty arrived at the TJK event in Brandon, we started loading his truck. Pallet after pallet of food, water, clothes, toiletries, baby supplies and pet food was loaded into the semi and the U-Haul in the blazing Florida heat by dozens of volunteers — men, women and children. When it was clear we needed another truck, Kathleen came to our rescue again. She arranged a second 27-foot U-Haul for the convoy to Texas. Almost immediately, two more Jeepers volunteered to make the drive.

Rolling Out

Our convoy now consisted of Coty’s tractor-trailer, two 27-foot U-Hauls, two Jeeps (one towing a trailerful of pet food) and, bringing up the rear, my family in an SUV filled with bottled water. Before we hit the road, I booked rooms for the entire crew at a Holiday Inn Express several miles outside of Houston.

As we made our way west, we heard discouraging news. Leaders of the groups with whom Coty had arranged delivery, Bottoms Up Jeepers and North Texas Jeep Club, said our primary drop-off point was two feet underwater and still sinking. Then we learned the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had announced they were no longer accepting donated supplies and authorities were turning vehicles away at the border.

Just as we were beginning to wonder if our mission was all for naught, Coty got a call from the local police captain in Orange, Texas, which is about 100 miles east of Houston, right on the border of Louisiana. They had heard we were coming, they needed our supplies, and they could get us past the roadblock.

Dawn was breaking as we reached the border and met the Orange police. They escorted us along the eastbound side of the I-10. The other side was completely flooded. Houses, cars and entire neighborhoods were under what looked to be at least three feet of water. As we approached our exit, I noticed the handlebars of an abandoned Harley sticking up out of the muddy water, a small but poignant symbol of the countless losses suffered by Harvey’s victims.

High water and low branches made the last few miles impassable for Coty, but the U-Hauls were able to follow the police to Orange City Hall. We dropped off the trucks and the police were kind enough to escort us to our hotel.

Are You the Manager?

It was early morning when we pulled into the parking lot at the Holiday Inn Express. Our hopes for a few hours of rest were quickly shattered. It was no longer a hotel. It was a shelter. One brave desk clerk had stayed behind with her two babies to welcome evacuees. Before we even had a chance to introduce ourselves, she told us they were out of food and water but we were welcome to stay and have a cold shower if we could find a room. We thanked her for her kindness and bravery and told her this was her lucky day.

The Texas Jeepers had set up a secondary drop-off point at a church, so after we restocked the hotel and bid the “manager” good day, we rolled out. We turned that little church into one big commissary. With the help of a few parishioners, we unloaded Coty’s 53-foot trailer by hand, which took the better part of the day. The plan was to wait for the convoy of Jeepers from North Texas, but we soon learned that the waters were still rising and we needed to head out soon before the roads were completely flooded. The Jeeps headed back to Orange to pick up the U-Hauls.

While we waited for the convoy to reassemble, I called ahead to the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, La., to book some rooms. It was about 6 p.m. on Saturday when we arrived. None of us had slept or showered in at least two days, and of course we had to be back on the road early the next day. But we all had dinner together to celebrate a job well done — or so I thought.

That night, Coty informed us he had run into a group that had four planeloads of medical supplies sitting at an airport. They needed to be delivered to Houston. He and Billi had already decided to make the run.

Before we left for Texas, a good friend of mine asked me about the trip. I told him that 10 Central Florida Jeepers were delivering hurricane relief supplies to Texas, and my family and I were joining them as members of the press. We had all our video and camera equipment loaded in the SUV, and the plan was to document the trip. It is difficult to explain why, but we never unpacked the equipment. It just did not seem right. If someone asked me today about the trip to Texas, I would say that I had the honor of riding and working side-by-side with these brave and dedicated Jeepers.

I did want to send a very special thanks to Coty Byers and Billi Gibson for the fantastic job they did leading our group and keeping us all safe and also the hardworking men and women from the Central Florida Relief Team. Without you, none of this would have been possible. Thank you for your service!

Jeepers live by their motto of “No Jeeper left behind,” and they proved it that week. At no point in my career as a publisher or my life off-road have I been so proud to call myself a Jeeper. We are part of a community that gets things done within and outside the towns and cities we call home. To everyone who donated and volunteered, I thank you. And to the good people of Texas, I wish you all the luck in the world as you rebuild your own communities. If you need us, just give us a call. We will be there in 18 hours.

Throughout Central Florida, off-road Jeepers are assisting in state and county search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. The groups they form are leading the way in utilizing civilian volunteer four-wheel-drive support. By getting more Jeep enthusiasts trained to participate in these critical missions, local law enforcement agencies can cover terrain that would be inaccessible to patrol vehicles.

These crews are not just making themselves and their vehicles available for backcountry SAR missions such as lost hikers, plane crashes and disaster relief. The social media-savvy Jeeper community has also helped in the search for missing people, reaching out to their online groups with alerts and photos and increasing the chances of someone recognizing the subject on the street.

To learn more about how the groups operate and how more Jeepers can get involved, Jeepin’ Central Florida caught up with Joseph Ruiz, founder and commander of Tampa-based Florida Wilderness Search & Rescue – Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and Corp. Arthur Madden, who serves in the Community Relations Unit and as Jeep Unit coordinator for the Pasco Sheriff’s Office in New Port Richey.

Ruiz and his 44-member team are helping to spearhead the statewide effort to include Jeepers in SAR missions. He says the off-road capabilities of Jeep vehicles and their owners have become a valuable asset to the public. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Jeep Unit includes 37 members, all of whom donate their time and equipment when an SAR call comes in.

“We have a great, true appreciation for our volunteers,” Madden says of the program.

As they expand their forces, local law enforcement agencies are able to offset the demand that comes with protecting and serving the public. These fairly new units have already proven to be instrumental to SAR and missing-person efforts. Having the ability to reach areas they’ve had trouble getting to in the past, Jeepers and their skills are becoming an indispensable asset for law enforcement, firefighters and first responders.

Join the family

By the time Ruiz bought his first Jeep in 2013, he already had extensive SAR experience. When the Army veteran was stationed in Korea in the early 1970s, he took a water-rescue course offered by the American Red Cross. When Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed into the Everglades in 1972, Ruiz was home on leave.

“I volunteered to assist in the recovery of the cadavers,” he says. “That’s where I quickly got over being grossed out by bloody things.”

Equipped with a Wrangler and retired from a second career in the private sector, Ruiz linked up with the Tampa Jeep Krewe (TJK) and created the TJK-CERT-SAR unit. His volunteers have been vetted and certified by the Tampa Fire & Police Training Center and Greater Tampa CERT. In Pasco County, Sheriff Chris Nocco recognized the importance of expanding their force to include a unit comprised of off-road-ready Jeeper volunteers. Nocco tasked Madden with creating the Jeep Unit. Madden researched units and agencies nationwide, from the Tampa Bay area as far as California, and tapped them for information. TJK-CERT-SAR was among the most enthusiastic responders. “Hands down, without my volunteers, we wouldn’t exist, and I would have fallen short of my sheriff’s request,” Madden says.

Owing to the demands of the work, the requirements to get involved with an SAR group are strict. Effective and successful missions require a high degree of organization and thoroughness.

“We depend on each other. The training is nonnegotiable,” Ruiz says, noting the group needs to be able to trust and rely on each other to be properly prepared. Furthermore, he adds, having these certifications under your belt makes you a valuable asset to your family, friends and community.

The following are training requirements for Florida Wilderness Search & Rescue – CERT:

• Attend the Federal Emergency Mandate Agency (FEMA)’s 24-hour CERT course.
• Complete the advanced CERT medical training, repelling and advanced trauma training offered by Tampa Fire Rescue.
• Learn how to operate and conduct yourself properly when participating in an emergency scene through the National Incident Management System (NIMS) program. You will also be trained in lifesaving and transportation of victims.
• Submit to a background check.

Some of the training is done on a group basis as a social event, and the group also holds events for fun, relaxation and team-building. For the Pasco Jeep Unit’s full letter of expectation, visit pascosheriff.com/jeep-unit.

Ruiz says he appreciates the fact that many Florida Wilderness members have invested in vehicle modifications and upgrades necessary for the work. Members also purchase their own uniforms and protective gear, including helmets and gloves. To attain National Association for Search and Rescue (NASR) certification, you will also need medical supplies and a three-day backpack. Initial upfront costs include the uniform, patch and a decal for your vehicle. On the plus side, everything is a charitable contribution, and most of these costs are tax-exempt; Florida Wilderness is a registered 501(c)(3).

Welcomed With Open Arms

Ruiz and Madden say their teams are very well-rounded. Their volunteers include active and retired military and law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, nurses and mechanics. Both men say they are always looking for quality individuals and groups to bring into their organizations.

Ruiz’s group recently dropped the word “Jeep” from its name to make it clear that all four-wheel drive vehicles are welcome. Expanding the types of four-wheel drive vehicles presents the group with more options. For instance, a four-wheel-drive flatbed truck can move equipment to a scene while Wranglers are navigating through the trees, finding and leading the path for larger vehicles.

When disaster strikes, Ruiz says, the Jeep crews are there to be directed, and they serve at the pleasure of the agencies in charge – whether it’s FEMA, the FAA or local law enforcement. Ruiz’s group sets up their tent and tells the ruling agency, “Hey, we’re here.” A typical mission will include two to three people in a vehicle with multiple vehicles mobilized to cover more ground and transport resources. A single Jeep team could include a driver, a scout and a forensics expert – all properly trained, all trusted to have each other’s back.

The camaraderie and appreciation that has been developed between these groups and the agencies they serve is the real success story. Both team leaders say they are extremely grateful to every volunteer for their dedication and investment – and they agree there is something about the off-road community in particular that breeds compassion and the desire to help. Madden believes tapping into the strongly rooted Jeep family is helping the community at large stay connected, stay educated, and spread the eagerness and willingness to assist.

“Jeepers are likeminded, goodhearted people,” Madden says.