Falcon Direct

Let's face it, today's law enforcement vehicle is a rolling office on wheels.  For a long time, we resisted becoming involved in building vehicles on the premise that no one can be an expert at everything. Our specialty is communications. It’s what we’ve always done and it’s something we think we do better than anyone else. Then, along came a company called Unitrol (now a part of Federal Signal) who introduced us to the concept of vertical integration (they teach this in school now).

In essence, vertical integration is the idea of addressing and serving MULTIPLE existing customer needs. We found there was a lot of commonality in the electronics used in sirens and radios. Since we already had a large public safety customer base, the addition of the Unitrol sirens and wig-way lights made a lot of sense. Regrettably, we never took this concept to the next level which would have involved emergency lights.

We drifted away from the siren business as it became more of a commodity product sold primarily on the basis of price. We have always sought opportunities where value added services could give us an area of distinction. In communications, we know a lot of things that the majority of our competitors don’t know. It isn’t that we are any smarter – we just work harder by developing complimentary skills in FCC licensing, grant assistance, financial planning and unique solutions for maintenance. Additional information on our service is available at www.UltraCarePlus.com. The point is that we do not pursue business opportunities where the main criteria is just having the lowest price. We think there is more to business than just beating the other guy, so we got out of the siren business.

Over time, we noted that people were developing a business based on the concept of building law enforcement vehicles. More often than not, there were (and are) off duty public safety officers who had acquired installation capabilities by working for their own departments. We didn’t pay too much attention until these folks started specifying the equipment that was going into the cars and sometimes they didn’t specify our equipment. NOW they had our attention! So, we took a hard look at whether we should (or should not) get into the car building business.

What we found was that most of the people in this business are not insured (we carry $2,000,000 in Liability insurance), virtually none had (or have) any formal training in even basic electronics, much less communications. The radio shops that provide such services typically charge 20 to 25% more than the moonlighters. Most do not get the best prices on equipment since they purchase in small quantities.

Based on this information, we concluded that we could be a player in this car building business. The only thing lacking was the right people to do the job. We got ourselves a licensed professional electrical engineer and not one, but two ASE certified installers. NOW, we are ready to be a car builder. There is only one thing missing – CUSTOMERS, which we hope will include YOU!