Beachwood Fire Company Hosts Secret Service Vehicle

BEACHWOOD, NJ — The Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company hosts many things at its firehouse — parade festivities, Halloween celebrations, and Santa Claus, of course.

Over the weekend the fire company had a guest that was just as special as Santa: the U.S. Secret Service. Specifically, the fire company provided housing to the Secret Service’s new Public Order Tactical Response Vehicle.

The vehicle, which looks like a firetruck, is equipped with everything Secret Service officers need to respond to a civil disturbance, according to the service's website.

That includes "communication tools, crowd control equipment, medical kits, fire extinguishers and other tools to help maintain order if 1st Amendment activity escalates to the point of civil unrest," according to the Secret Service description of the truck.

"This weekend the Beachwood Fire Department assisted the US Secret Service by staging their Civil Disturbance Unit at our station while it is in New Jersey for events," the fire company said in a post on its Facebook page. "We were hoping to roll it on a fire call but no luck!"

The timing of the staging, on the same weekend that "No Kings" protests unfolded across New Jersey and the United States that had authorities at every level on guard, was a coincidence, a Secret Service spokesman told Patch on Monday.

"It was being used for a recruiting event at Fort Dix," the spokesman said, referring to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. "We'll use them as part of a display."

"We'll often store them at a secure local site between events," the spokesman said.

"We had the opportunity to help them store it and get a peek at a cool truck," a spokesman with the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company said, acknowledging that it got attention as it drove through town.

The one that spent the weekend in Beachwood is one of several of the tactical trucks the Secret Service has across the country, he said.

As for the "No Kings" protests, he said the Secret Service doesn't typically get involved with localized events, concentrating its work on "major events like the national special security detail with the military parade" in Washington on Saturday.

"This had no connection to the 'No Kings' protests," the spokesman said.

A Secret Service article about the truck said the first one was delivered in July 2024, ahead of the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, and has been deployed to all major Secret Service events in the area of the nation's capital since.

The Secret Service said the protests in the summer of 2020 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd prompted the decision to have a specialized vehicle created for such events, Sergeant-Technician Scott Curry of the Secret Service’s Public Order Program said in the article, which includes video of the truck.

The Public Order Program’s priority is to mitigate conflicts and redirect energy to avoid a clash whenever possible, he said. The focus is finding ways to maintain order while giving people "space to express their views and practice their First Amendment rights."

“It’s about working with the groups, too,” Curry said. “Often, people just want to be heard.”