Sheriff’s Office Partners with Team Rubicon on disaster response training

Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden announced a partnership with Team Rubicon, a non-profit group of veterans that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams.

To improve response and recovery of disasters and emergency situations, Team Rubicon along with members of the Monmouth and Ocean County Building Officials Association, attended a training seminar at the Public Safety Center in Freehold on September 21. The focus was on damage assessment and the utilization of a new software system to record and track the damages caused by a disaster.

“We continually recognize the valuable resources veteran’s organizations offers to law enforcement and emergency operations. As a result, it’s vital we engage in partnerships with organizations such as TEAM Rubicon,” said Sheriff Golden. “The addition of Team Rubicon into OEM’s resource plans will allow for expanding support to the residents, businesses and visitors of Monmouth County. Another key benefit to partnering with Team Rubicon is that the services they provide are free to impacted communities, thus reducing the economic impact disasters have on our budgets.”

The training is a major step towards building a collaborative and cooperative relationship with veteran’s organizations and a part of Sheriff Golden’s Veteran’s Emergency Training Services, V.E.T.S, initiative, expected to be unveiled in October.

Team Rubicon, an international non-profit disaster response organization, was formed by two Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, who knew they could help the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Hait on January 12th 2010. Together with six other veterans and first responders, they gathered funds and medical supplies from friends and family and flew into the Dominican Republic. They rented a truck, loaded their gear, and headed west to Haiti where treated thousands of patients, traveling to camps deemed “too dangerous” by other aid organizations. They ventured outside the traditional scale of disaster response, focusing on those who would be overlooked, untreated.