POCATELLO — The Pocatello Police Department will soon acquire a mobile command post, made possible with a donation from an international nonprofit organization that helps law enforcement agencies combat certain crimes.

The Pocatello City Council in September unanimously approved the police department accepting the donation from Operation Underground Railroad, an organization that has been helping to rescue women and children from sex trafficking and exploitation in 28 countries since 2013.

The mobile unit OUR donated is a vehicle that operates as a portable forensic lab, command center and interview room. The unit will allow PPD to respond more quickly and efficiently to incidents and public safety threats, specifically but not limited to human trafficking and internet crimes against children.

Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei said on Tuesday that the vehicle is still being constructed by Specialty Vehicle Concepts, Inc. in Murray, Utah, and likely won’t be completed until about three or four weeks from now.

In a written summary of the donation Schei said his agency has looked into getting a mobile unit like this in the past but has never made a formal request because the fully equipped vehicle would cost the city about $350,000.

“OUR has provided us a way to obtain this vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer,” Schei said, adding that the unit will allow PPD to record interviews at the site of a police response rather than having to take people to the police station, and that it will enhance his agency’s “capabilities and quality.”

In a letter to Schei dated Aug. 25, an OUR representative said the organization works with the SVCI vehicle manufacturer and had two mobile command units in build, one of which they would be “graciously offering” to PPD at no cost.

OUR’s only ask in exchange for the donation was that PPD provide a general report once every two months with data showing the number of arrests made and victims identified with the help of the mobile command post.

The OUR representative said the report is to ensure OUR’s “thousands of donors,” from which money for PPD’s vehicle came, that their dollars are being used productively and are doing “exceptional things to safeguard children.”

The mobile unit will be used with PPD’s existing street crimes, patrol and other investigative units, according to Schei. The focus of the vehicle will be to help with human trafficking and ICAC cases, which are prevalent in Pocatello. The only cost to Pocatello will be vehicle maintenance, which is already covered in the police department’s existing budget.

OUR’s donation is one of a few such offers extended to the Pocatello Police Department this year. Over the summer, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office offered to pay for a full-time PPD investigator whose focus would be on preventing and working cases involving internet crimes against children.

That offer is still pending City Council approval, but the council agreed during an October meeting that it would vote on a contract outlining the position. The contract is being finalized and will soon be brought before the council.