The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office recently revealed the newest vehicle of their fleet: a transport van.

Sheriff Chad Leonard says the Supervisors approved the vehicle’s purchase earlier in the year, and it took a while to outfit it to their needs, but it’s now ready to roll. It’s primary purpose will be to transport prisoners from the Dallas County jail to jails in neighboring counties. Leonard explains, “As everybody knows, we’ve been flagged with transports for the last several years. And more and more as the County continues to grow, we’re continuing to do more transports. And we will in the future. I know we’ve passed the new Sheriff’s Office now, and it’s in the process of getting built. That’s a two-year process, so we had to step up and buy a little bit bigger vehicle. And it allows us to transport approximately 12 inmates at a time.”

The transport vehicle includes three distinct sections: one that can fit six prisoners, one that fits four, and another for two. Leonard says the sections will allow them to properly segregate the inmates as dictated by Iowa law. Once the new law enforcement center is completed and the County no longer has to transport prisoners to other jails, the transport vehicle will serve more to move prisoners from the jail to the courthouses downtown.

Either way, Leonard says the County will get a lot of use out of the new transport vehicle.