More than lighting
Vehicle installations expanded to the equipment and systems that public safety professionals depend on every day.
Our story
From a family garage to public safety agencies across America.
Public Safety Direct started with a simple website, a garage full of equipment, and a young family working around two careers in law enforcement. What began by selling emergency vehicle lighting online would eventually grow into something much larger.
2005 — The beginning
It started online.
Public Safety Direct began as PublicSafetyLighting.com, a small online store focused on emergency vehicle lighting. As the business grew, it became PublicSafetyDirect.com, expanding beyond lighting to offer emergency vehicle equipment, police supplies, and gear for individual officers.
Built from home
What began as a small website quickly grew into thousands of products being shipped to officers and agencies across the country. Behind the scenes, Mark and Julie were building the business while working their own law enforcement careers, raising a young family, and filling orders from their home and garage.
2007 — A turning point
The first installation.
Like many turning points, PSD’s move into vehicle upfitting wasn’t part of a business plan. It started with a conversation.
The Crestwood Police Department needed help replacing an LED lightbar on one of its squad cars. Mark offered to take care of it. That one lightbar led to another vehicle, then another, and before long, neighboring departments were bringing their vehicles to PSD as well.
A new direction
The equipment business opened the door, but working on the vehicles changed the direction of the company. PSD began moving beyond simply supplying equipment to installing it, integrating complete systems, and ultimately taking responsibility for the finished vehicle.
What started with a conversation and a single lightbar became the foundation for the vehicle side of Public Safety Direct.
2008 — Expanding capability
Bringing graphics in-house.
As vehicle work increased, so did the need for graphics and lettering. PSD purchased a small vinyl plotter and began producing basic vehicle graphics internally. That first plotter eventually led to larger printers, laminators, and increasingly advanced production capabilities.
The PSD approach
It established an approach that still defines PSD: learn the process, invest in the equipment, train our people, and bring the capability in-house.
2009 — Formally incorporated
Public Safety Direct, Inc.
As the business grew beyond its beginnings as a small online retailer, Public Safety Direct, Inc. was formally incorporated. Online equipment sales had created the foundation, but vehicle upfitting, graphics, and direct relationships with public safety agencies were becoming a larger part of PSD’s future.
The result
The company was becoming a complete emergency vehicle upfitter.
The next chapter
The vehicles became the focus.
What changed
As more agencies trusted PSD with their fleets, emergency lighting grew into consoles, partitions, communications, electrical systems, storage, controls, and increasingly complete vehicle installations.
Graphics and production expanded alongside upfitting, allowing PSD to take greater responsibility for the entire finished vehicle.
Graphics and production
In-house production made it possible to take greater responsibility for the complete vehicle.
A complete upfitter
PSD transitioned from primarily selling equipment to building the vehicles that equipment goes into.
2012 — Growing capabilities
More under one roof.
Better tools, equipment, and emerging technologies.
PSD continued investing in the capabilities required for increasingly complex public safety vehicles and production work.
Continued investment in people.
As the work became more complex, training and shared knowledge became essential to how PSD builds and supports vehicles.
Repeatable practices and quality control.
Build techniques, electrical practices, documentation, and quality control became more organized and repeatable.
More work performed within PSD.
Upfitting, graphics, production, and specialized work increasingly came together under one roof.
2018 — The next evolution
From upfitter to technology integrator.
As customer requirements changed, traditional upfitting expanded into mobile command, drone response, advanced connectivity, independent power, computing, search and rescue, and other specialty platforms.
The question was no longer simply how to install the equipment. It became: what does the agency need this vehicle to accomplish? That change in thinking pushed PSD toward integrating the vehicle, equipment, connectivity, power, and technology as one complete operational system.
Built for complex work
- Advanced communications and networking
- Video, computing, and auxiliary electrical systems
- Solar, alternative energy, and power management
- Specialty emergency and public safety platforms
PSD was evolving beyond the traditional definition of an emergency vehicle upfitter.
2021 — National projects
From Chicagoland to agencies across America.
Built close to home.
What began with Crestwood and neighboring Chicagoland departments established the direct agency relationships that continue to shape PSD.
Different environments, different requirements.
Every project brings its own operating conditions and challenges, adding experience that influences the vehicles and systems that follow.
One principle, different missions.
Municipal, state, and federal public safety organizations across the United States rely on systems designed around how their people actually work.
2022 — Building a better process
The vehicles became more complex.
As vehicle systems became more sophisticated, PSD began developing better ways to configure, document, build, and support them. Standardized build practices and digital vehicle configuration reflect an ongoing effort to make projects more organized, repeatable, and supportable throughout the life of the vehicle.
The goal was no longer simply to build more vehicles. It was to build them better.
Configure it
→
Build it
→
Document it
→
Support it
→
Replace it
2023–2026 — Building relationships
Relationships that expanded what is possible.
Expanding into specialty response vehicles
PSD’s work with Darley opened new opportunities beyond traditional emergency vehicle upfitting, including the development of specialty Ford Bronco platforms for wildland fire platform, Kern County Fire, Teton County Rescue, and the National Park Service.
These projects combined vehicle integration, communications, power, technology and specialized equipment to create purpose-built platforms for agencies operating in demanding environments.
Bringing incident response technology into the vehicle
PSD’s work with Microsoft helped bring the A.I.R.S. Advanced Incident Response System and Tactical Vehicle Platform from the traditional command environment into a mobile, field-deployable platform.
By integrating computing, resilient connectivity, real-time information, and advanced technology directly into the vehicle, the project demonstrated how a public safety vehicle could become more than transportation or equipment storage. It could serve as a connected operational platform, bringing information, situational awareness, and decision-making capabilities closer to the incident.
Answer the Call
PSD’s work with Ford’s Answer the Call initiative brought together the Bronco’s off-road capability with specialized equipment and vehicle integration designed specifically for search-and-rescue operations.
Working with Ford and Darley, PSD transformed Bronco platforms into mission-ready response vehicles built to help search-and-rescue teams carry personnel, equipment, communications and operational capability into places traditional response vehicles may not be able to reach.
2026 — PSD Builder
Rethinking how an upfit begins.
Developed in 2026, PSDBuilder.com gives verified agencies and approved customers a secure, structured environment to begin developing their next vehicle. Instead of starting with disconnected emails, spreadsheets, equipment lists, and conversations, customers can select vehicle platforms, explore available equipment, develop configurations, and create an organized starting point for a build.
For larger fleets, that creates repeatability. A successful configuration can become the foundation for future vehicles while still evolving as equipment and operational needs change. PSD Builder is not simply an online catalog. It is the beginning of the vehicle-building process.
Explore PSD Builder Access →Experience in the field
Experience That Cannot Be Learned From a Product Catalog
- 25+ years
- Law-enforcement experience
- Nearly 20 years
- Deputy sheriff service
Mark’s law enforcement career spans more than 25 years, beginning as a police officer and progressing through roles as an evidence technician, field training officer, patrol sergeant, patrol commander, deputy chief of police, and ultimately chief of police. Julie spent nearly two decades serving as a deputy sheriff and today leads PSD’s growing production operation.
That experience shapes the way PSD approaches every build. We are not just thinking about how a vehicle looks when it leaves the shop. We are thinking about the officer, firefighter, or first responder who may have to rely on that vehicle in the middle of the night, under pressure, when everything has to work exactly as intended.
That perspective cannot be learned from a catalog. It comes from having done the job.
Still building
From a small website and a family garage to public safety agencies across America, we’re still building.
A website became an equipment company. Equipment led to a vehicle installation. One installation led to another. The company has changed considerably; what has not changed is the willingness to learn, invest, improve, and take on the next challenge.