The city of Richmond’s (Va.) Engine 22, a Pierce First Response Vehicle (FRV), was recently reported stolen by vehicle maintenance workers when the fire truck could not be located at the city’s fleet maintenance facility. The vehicle had been left at the facility the previous day and was taken overnight between 4 p.m. and 9 a.m.

One of the on-duty communications officers assigned to the fire dispatch position at Richmond’s Division of Emergency Communications (DEC) quickly notified the Department of Information Technology’s Public Safety CAD Core Team. The CAD Core Team supports all technology needs for DEC.

Generally, GPS coordinates are tracked on Richmond’s public safety vehicles only when the Mobile Data Computer (MDC) is logged on and Intergraph’s mobile client is operational. The MDC hadn’t been logged on, hence the mobile client was not transmitting any coordinates.

However, a member of the CAD Core team used the Ace Manager, a tool provided by Sierra Wireless to directly poll the Sierra Wireless GX400 modem on Engine-22. Even though the MDC was not powered up, the cellular modems are installed and configured to remain powered up as long as the vehicle battery has power. Once the geo-coordinates were determined, the CAD Core team member reported the location of the vehicle to DEC. The vehicle was quickly found by police between two buildings almost directly across the street from the fleet maintenance facility.

An arrest was made in the incident two weeks later. The same suspect had been charged in the theft of an ambulance belonging to an area rescue squad four months earlier.