Police Fleet Expo 2021 Richmond, VA Recap

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Richmond is known for many things, such as the amazing views of the city from the James River, the rich history, the local cuisine, and the growing job market. The city was ranked at number 24 on the top 25 best places to live in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report. The GRCC is situated within a 500-mile radius of more than half of the U.S. population. The Richmond region is considered a drive-to market along Interstate 95 but also is easily accessible by bus, rail, and the Richmond International Airport, which is a 10-minute drive from downtown. With 178,158 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, a 30,550-square-foot Grand Ballroom, and 50,000 square feet of additional meeting/banquet space, the GRCC was well-positioned to host a variety of sessions from this year’s PFE, including the always-popular PFE Trade Show Exhibit Hall.
Like every year, PFE attracts Police Fleet Managers, Fleet Directors, Police Chiefs, frontline officers, and others responsible for the purchase of police vehicles and the many upfit accessories that go on and in today’s law enforcement vehicles.
PFE 2021 saw several changes and many new things, including the new electronic registration program. Introduced at the 2019 Savannah show, attendees no longer stand in line and wait to sign up. The electronic registration program takes your pre-registration information (or your on-site registration information) and within a few quick minutes, produces your badge, which can be scanned with an iPhone in a vendor’s booth. PFE also continued using the Bizzabo show app, which is the best way to stay current with any updates or last-minute program or room changes, throughout the entire event.
Three days of vital training sessions with more than 40 percent new content rounded out the educational component. These sessions are specifically designed for fleet managers and range from the basic Fleet Management 101 for those new in their position, to the more advanced sessions dealing with today’s challenging issues facing all fleet managers across North America. The training session topics come directly from feedback provided by attendees, so please make sure you let the PFE staff know what sessions need to be included in future shows.
The pent-up demand for training was noticeable at this year’s event with many sessions standing-room only. Mr. Scott Coy, President, Emergency Vehicle Conversions, spoke passionately at his session “Upfitting Tips and Tricks.” Coy explained various methods and techniques he has deployed at his shop and the packed room enjoyed a very informative back-and-forth session on these tricks of the trade.
One of the most iconic and most attended sessions was the Tire Forensics session put on by the always-entertaining TJ Tennant, President, The TyreGuy. TJ has a unique and colorful way of getting down to the importance of tires when managing a fleet and his “no holes barred” discussions are a favorite each year. The remainder of the sessions focused on everyday issues that fleet managers are regularly dealing with such as the constant advancements in technology, both within the vehicles themselves and the aftermarket upfitting challenges, as these vehicles get more complex.
To ensure everyone got a chance to make it around the 100-plus exhibitors, the trade show floor was open for two days, totaling eight hours. Practically every company that makes a product for public safety vehicles was exhibiting and attendees could see, firsthand, how these products are fully integrated with new police vehicles. PFE is one of the most extensive trade shows in the law enforcement market, and what makes it unique is the product displays and how approachable the vendors are to frontline fleet manager issues. It is not uncommon to walk up to a vendor’s booth and get an issue you have had for months completely resolved in minutes, just by speaking to the right people, face-to-face. The vendors also value the direct feedback from frontline users of the product, good or bad, and it is all done in an effort to make their product the best it can be to enhance the safety and productivity of police officers.
The Ride & Drive Track Event was unique this year, situated on the property of the Virginia State Police (VSP) Training Complex located about an hour north of the GRCC in Blackstone, VA. This very impressive driver training facility is one of the largest in the country at just under two miles in length and the envy of most law enforcement agencies. The VSP Driver Training staff under the direction of Sgt. Jeff Hanna were on site at all times and were gracious hosts at this state-of-the-art facility.
Upon arrival, attendees could visit with multiple vendors as part of the track mini expo, as they made their way to test-drive the latest police vehicles from GM Fleet, Dodge Law, and Ford Fleet. Let’s face facts, all three manufacturers make excellent law enforcement products, and there was no better track to test them on.
What’s critical for both Fleet Managers and officers is seat time driving all of these purpose-built vehicles on the same track, one after another, and deciding which ones fit their requirements the best. The Ride & Drive Event is not about how fast you can rip around the course, but it tries to provide an average driving condition in real-world applications, allowing a fair comparison between each of the three manufacturers’ products.
The higher-speed road course was set with EVOC testing in mind, which included full stops, chicanes, hard turns, off-camber high-speed turning, and more. Each driver was accompanied by a factory rep that answered any questions about vehicle behavior or characteristics. Along with the road course, there was an off-road course, a one-mile dirt course with off-camber turns, elevation changes, drops, pot holes, and ruts, which gave attendees the opportunity to take each of the manufacturers’ trucks through their paces and see exactly how each performed.

New this year at the track event was a standalone course set up and put on by Firestone/Bridgestone tire. Firestone has engineered a new all-weather tire that in their opinion is superior in high-speed wet traction situations against their competitors. VSP supplied six vehicles and these vehicles were set up with half of them running new Firestone “FireHawk” tires and then other half of the vehicles were set up with the OEM stock tires. Each attendee was permitted to drive the same vehicle type with two different sets of tires through a high-speed water soaked course and make up their own mind if they felt a difference in tire performance. Many who took part in this tire demo course said it was a major eye opener for them as they had never previously been able to compare tires side by side in this unique circumstance. If the all-day lineup was any indication, this event was very popular.
The weather was hot and humid, so a very special thank-you to Magnetic Mics for supplying those ice-cold water stations throughout the track area. The outdoor tent provided some well-needed shade as attendees were welcomed with a delicious lunch provided by PFE and Setina. Overall, a really great day at the track and the Virginia State Police Driver Training staff deserve a big thank-you for their hospitality, as it is rare that they open this exclusive facility to allow a ride & drive like the Police Fleet Expo attendees experienced.

Zero Motorcycles and Recon Electric Bicycles also set up a small course along the VSP training facility’s internal “Urban Driving Course.” Attendees got a chance to ride the Zero bikes on a realistic city course of urban streets and intersections or take out the amazing e-bikes and see just how efficient they are at moving emergency personnel quickly through crowds without exhausting the officers.
Ford had three versions on the all-new 2020 Police Interceptor Utility, including all three powertrain options for the Police Interceptor Utility: the standard 3.3-liter hybrid, plus available 3.0-liter EcoBoost ® and 3.3-liter V6 engines. All are powered by a new, 10-speed automatic transmission and feature standard full-time Intelligent All-Wheel Drive and a deep snow/sand traction control mode. Probably the biggest lineup of the day was the wait for the Ford F-150 Responder Pursuit pickup. This recently developed pursuit pickup that shocked everyone at Michigan State Police Testing was a popular choice for attendees. The F-150 Responder was driven on the high-speed track and also on the dirt course.
Dodge had several versions of the Charger Pursuit, both V6 Pentastar AWD and the V8 AWD version. The Charger is really the only sedan police vehicle left on the market with both GM and Ford no longer offering a big full-size sedan. The Durango Pursuit was also available for testing, along with the Dodge Ram 1500 SSV. Many of the attendees got to see just how well the Ram 1500 SSV handled the off-road course, as it was a popular choice all day.
GM had several versions of the newly designed Tahoe. Both PPV Tahoe and SSV 4X4 versions were available for a drive around the track. The big news with the Tahoes was the new brakes, with huge 16-inch rotors and six-piston Brembo calipers. The Tahoe’s Police brake package is now second to none. The Silverado Pickup SSV and the newly released Chevrolet Bolt all-electric SSV was also a popular choice for attendees to test on the track. While small, the Bolt was lightning-quick and surprised many with how well it handled the track event. This new SSV version will likely be a favorite for non-frontline duties like parking or bylaw enforcement, detective, or administrative use.

Whelen Networking Event

On Monday, August 16, between 6–10 p.m., Whelen Engineering put on a fabulous networking event at the Top Golf facility in Richmond. It was a full night of food, drink, and games that had all attendees enjoying the festivities. At this event, Whelen highlighted some of their latest technology, including their cutting-edge CenCom Core-R® WeCan X. Core-R is a vehicle control system engineered to enhance first responder and motorist safety with complete configurability, advanced automation, and remote connectivity. It is a control system with modular design to accommodate any situation for complete control of your fleet emergency lighting needs. Whelen is definitely changing the game when it comes to emergency lighting engineering, programmability, and connectivity. We thank Whelen for hosting this fantastic event.
On Tuesday, August 17, the highly anticipated Manufacturer Sessions were held in the main ballroom. These sessions are usually the most heavily attended and this year, they were packed! The sessions give fleet managers the opportunity to hear from all three OEMs and get the “straight goods” moving forward on current and future product development. Obviously, all three OEMs are affected by the current microchip shortages and it was a credit to all three OEM Police Program Teams as they honestly admitted it was an issue and described in detail how it is affecting their particular police vehicle production.

General Motors

This year, GM went first with some new staff making up their police team. Mr. Yuri Tello, General Motors Global Fleet and Government Sales Manager, spoke first and he handed off the presentation to the Police teams engineers for details on specific enhancements to their
vehicles. GM’s Police Program Team has many new people after Dana Hammer, the long-time face of GM Police Program, retired in 2019. For pursuit-rated vehicles, GM has only the PPV Tahoe in AWD and RWD and that is it for pursuit-rated vehicles. The 2021 model was sold out with the 2022 model year ordering starting August 19, 2021. The new 2021 design features the big new Brembo brake package, 400W cooling fan and larger radiator, wider second row door opening, and a new feature called “DEAP.” This is Driver Exit Auto Park, which means if the driver is going under 5 mph, they can bail out of the driver’s door without placing the vehicle in Park and the Tahoe will allow DEAP to stop the vehicle. Field testing with numerous agencies has so far been very positive. They will continue to have an SSV Silverado pickup and surprisingly, at the Ride & Drive, GM again had a totally stock retail version of the Traverse for attendees to drive on the track. We are not sure if this was some kind of foreshadowing but during the presentation, the Police Team made subtle reference to future police products, so many were speculating that a Police Traverse was on the horizon, although GM would not confirm.
https://www.gmfleet.com/police

PFE 2021/Ride & Drive photos by Meghan McDade.

Sergeant Brad Brewer is a 30-year member of the Vancouver Police Department. He was an eight-year member of the Ford Police Advisory Board and regularly gives presentations at law enforcement conferences on mobile computing, wireless technology and police vehicle ergonomics. He can be reached at sgt1411@gmail.com.