We install GPS tracking, in-car and dash cameras, and telematics on city and county vehicles across Aiken, Edgefield, Barnwell and Allendale counties, on site at your station, shop or motor pool. That includes the cross-trained public safety units in Aiken and North Augusta, county road crews on dirt roads, and transit buses.
Aiken does public safety differently from most South Carolina cities. The Aiken Department of Public Safety has combined police and fire since 1970, and its officers are trained to handle law enforcement, fire suppression and emergency medical aid as first responders. The department runs Administration and Support Services, Community Services, Investigations and Victim Services, and a combined Patrol/Fire division, and it holds CALEA accreditation and an ISO Class 2 fire rating. On the Savannah River across from Augusta, North Augusta also runs a single Department of Public Safety covering both police and fire. For a fleet manager that means patrol units that are also first-due fire response, and the equipment in them has to be installed with both jobs in mind.
The City of Aiken Public Services Department works out of Dupont Drive with a Grounds Division and a Solid Waste Division. Grounds keeps up the historic parkways, Hopelands Gardens, The Alley, the Newberry Street festival area and the city’s fountains, so those crews are spread across downtown every day with trucks, trailers and mowers. Solid Waste handles garbage, recycling and yard debris for more than 13,000 customers a week with roll carts and automated trucks, plus special pickups for furniture, appliances and e-waste.
Aiken County is the big county fleet here: roughly 1,080 square miles and about 181,000 people. County Public Works maintains around 300 miles of paved road and roughly 600 miles of dirt road through its Roads and Bridges Division, and runs a separate Solid Waste Division. Aiken County Emergency Services keeps twelve emergency ambulances stationed around the county, adds Quick Response Vehicles, and answers more than 26,000 calls for service a year. The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office runs a countywide patrol fleet of its own.
Transit and the rural counties round out the picture. Best Friend Express runs Blue, Green and Red routes through North Augusta, Aiken, Graniteville and the Whiskey Road corridor, with wheelchair lifts on every bus and transfers to Augusta Transit, plus Dial-a-Ride. The Lower Savannah Council of Governments is the federal grantee and contracts out the day-to-day operation. To the north, Edgefield County has about 30,000 residents; to the south, Barnwell County has about 20,600 and Allendale County about 7,400 across 412 square miles. The 310-square-mile Savannah River Site spans parts of Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties, and it shapes traffic and contractor activity across all three.
We install every major platform, including Geotab, Samsara, Motive, Verizon Connect, Lytx, Netradyne, Powerfleet and CalAmp, wired for how each vehicle is actually used.
Hardwired units on public safety SUVs, county graders and dump trucks that live on dirt roads, and OBD units on pool cars and inspector trucks. Battery asset trackers go on Grounds trailers and mowers that move between parkways, Hopelands Gardens and the downtown festival area.
Forward and cabin in-car cameras on patrol units, placed so they record cleanly and stay out of the airbag zone, plus backup and side cameras on automated solid waste trucks and county dump trucks. On transit buses we fit cameras that cover the wheelchair lift and the boarding door.
Ignition, PTO and emergency-light inputs wired so the data means something, engine diagnostics pulled from the vehicle bus, and multi-vendor setups where a car already carries a camera system from one company and GPS from another. We also move equipment from retiring units to replacement vehicles.
You wire it so every system works whatever the officer is responding to. A public safety officer in Aiken or North Augusta can go from a traffic stop to a structure fire in the same shift, so that SUV carries radios, a light bar, an in-car camera and often turnout gear and breathing apparatus in the back. We route power and antenna cables so the cargo area stays clear for gear, keep camera and GPS wiring out of the way of anything that gets pulled out in a hurry, and fuse each device on its own circuit so one fault never takes down the others.
Location data matters more in a combined department, too. When the nearest unit could be dispatched to a medical call, a fire alarm or a crime in progress, dispatch needs a position that updates reliably from every car. We test the GPS fix, the ignition sense and the camera trigger before the car goes back on the road, because a unit that looks fine on a map but reports late is worse than no data at all.
Yes, and Aiken County has about 600 miles of them. Washboard ruts, red clay dust and constant vibration are what loosen connectors, crack solder joints and shake a camera mount out of alignment within months. Graders, dump trucks and deputies’ cars that spend their days on unpaved county roads need crimped and sealed connections, strain relief on every harness, and mounts screwed or bolted where adhesive alone would fail.
Dust is the other problem. It gets into loose OBD ports and open splices, and it coats windshield cameras. We seal the connections, place cameras inside the wiper sweep, and choose mounting spots on heavy equipment that are protected from both vibration and wash-down. Good installs are also why your mileage and engine hours stay accurate, instead of drifting because a unit keeps rebooting on rough roads.
The agency that owns the vehicles should own the account and the data, not the operating contractor. Best Friend Express is a good example of the setup: the Lower Savannah Council of Governments is the federal grantee, and a contracted operator runs the buses day to day. If the GPS or camera account sits in the contractor’s name, a change of operator can leave the grantee without its history, its footage or its logins.
We install so the records follow the vehicle. Each unit is tied to the bus VIN in the platform, the account is set up in the owner’s name, and cameras are placed to cover the wheelchair lift, the boarding door and the aisle, which is where most complaints and claims begin. When an operator contract changes hands, the hardware stays put and nothing has to be pulled.
We come to the county lot and fix it, instead of letting that car run without a working camera for weeks. The rural counties here have fewer vehicles and fewer people to manage them. Allendale County has about 7,400 residents, so one sheriff’s car or ambulance out of action is a noticeable share of what is on the road.
The slow failure is the one to watch. A unit that stops reporting rarely gets noticed right away, and cameras that quietly fail are often discovered only when someone asks for footage. We check what is reporting, swap failed hardware on site, and batch service visits across Edgefield, Barnwell and Allendale so a single dead unit gets handled on the next run instead of waiting for a large job.
We work throughout Aiken County, Edgefield County, Barnwell County and Allendale County:
We install for public fleets throughout Aiken, Edgefield, Barnwell and Allendale counties, and we come to your yard, station or motor pool.
Yes. We work in small batches at the station or city shop and time installs around shift changes, so only one or two units are out at once and coverage never drops.
In most cases, yes. We wire the in-car system so it can trigger with your body cameras, lights or siren where your platform supports it, and we test that each trigger actually starts a recording before the car leaves.
Yes. Graders, dump trucks and loaders get hardwired units with engine-hour tracking, sealed connections and bolted mounts, which matters on equipment that spends its days on county dirt roads.
Yes. We install hardware you already own from any major platform, and we move units from retiring vehicles into their replacements so records stay continuous.
Yes. Each agency gets its own account, and we set the vehicles up under the right one, so shared hardware choices never mean shared records.
Tell us which vehicles and which platform, and we will plan an install that keeps your patrol, road and transit units on the job.
Tell us about your city, county or transit fleet and we will come back with an install plan built around your schedule.
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