Radio Shop meets needs of Richmond’s public safety on roads, waterways with new technology

Interior car temperatures monitored by cell phone. Lights and sirens that shut off automatically when the vehicle is put into park. Windows that roll down when the interior gets too hot.

These features might sound like science fiction, but they are just a few examples of vehicle technology currently being installed and maintained by the Technology Division of the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications (DEC).

Within the DEC’s Technology Division are two full-time and one part-time electronics technicians, overseen by an electronics technician supervisor, who specialize in meeting the unique needs of public safety officers on Richmond’s roads and waterways. The technicians work on everything from dump trucks, roadway paint trucks, school buses and fire apparatus to police boats and motorcycles in bays at the “Radio Shop.”

“When we had Bobcats in here, you would have thought the guys were in a candy store,” said D.C. Creasy, electronics technician supervisor. “The only thing we have not worked on is aircraft.”

In addition to installation and maintenance for the city of Richmond, the technicians perform work for Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Union University, Richmond Ambulance Authority, Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority and others, Creasy said.

These organizations get vehicles from the manufacturer as basic models, just as an individual would order. They send these basic models to the DEC Radio Shop to add technology that turns them into specialized vehicles, such as the Fire Marshall K9 SUV, which includes detailed systems to sense and monitor the internal environment for the working dogs, and police detective cruisers, with specialized lighting.

“The technology is so detailed now, we can do really crazy stuff on the computer,” Creasy said. “We get to build some really cool things. We get to make different light patterns and functions and put them where you can’t even see them. We’re pretty good at hiding stuff.”

The technicians work closely with public safety leadership for input, problem-solving and approval before installation, Creasy said. In fact, the ability to solve problems is the number one skill he looks for in hiring technicians, said Creasy, who came to the Richmond DEC Radio Shop in 2015, after starting as an installer at the Chesterfield Radio Shop, and became the supervisor in 2017.

“Electronics are based on theory, but they have to think on the fly to problem solve,” Creasy said. “If things are not working when it should be, they have to figure out why. If we can’t get the parts we need, then we make them. If what we’re doing isn’t working, we have to change how we work.”

Even though many government agencies have done away with their own radio shops, they are a way to lessen the impact of inflation on labor costs, Creasy said, adding that the DEC Radio Shop can perform work faster and less expensively than private companies, because of state and city contracts.

Also, it is one of the few shops in Richmond that can do this type of work, Creasy said. With their ingenuity, speed and experience in electronics, mechanics and metal fabrication, he said he would put his technicians up against any others in the area.

“Where else can you work to put cameras in vehicles?” he said.