Color of your lights?

[mcsexplorer]

What are the color(s) of your lights on your units?

[SWATcop]

We're in the process of phasing out all of the red and blue light bars and going to all blue.

[mcsexplorer]

Heres what I find:
Red's easier to see in the day and blue at night

But my opinion is that blue is better becasue it grabs attention and looks more official.

[SWATcop]

Our bars have blue strobes with a clear center rotator and blue halogen flashers along the bottom. The rear has 2 yellow halogens along the bottom as well.

[Bodie]

red/blue opposite end of spectrum for better visability in all weather conditions

[mcsexplorer]

hmmmmmmm,I agree with the red and blue setup,but I like the all blue personally.

[SWATcop]

hmmmmmmm,I agree with the red and blue setup,but I like the all blue personally.
An all blue light bar on a black and white cruiser looks pretty bad-***, let me tell you.

[Bigg Dogg]

Red and Blue light bars on our marked units.Unmarked units have red and blue leds and clear strobes and the headlite flashers.

[mcsexplorer]

An all blue light bar on a black and white cruiser looks pretty bad-***, let me tell you.



Agreed %100 percent...blue also looks more official...in my opinion

[rpd1794]

All blue LED bars and LED deck lights, strobes in front corner and tail lights.

[Long Gun]

Most any agency in California has red on the left and blue on the right. We cannot omit the red, not for fire or ambulance either. The Vehicle Code requires at least one steady-burning red lamp on an emergency vehicle. Blue just makes it recognizable as law enforcement. Fire depts. use all red, with amber to the rear.

My dept. uses strobe bars.

[Vtfuzz]

All blue up here.

[Long Gun]

Agreed %100 percent...blue also looks more official...in my opinion

Our boating enforcement is limited to blue out here.

[edg103]

In Texas we must display red and blue.

[RabbitMPD]

Red, blue, and white here all combined with strobes and rotors. White sweep lights on the sides of the lightbar. The rear has a yellow arrow stick under the lightbar. Also have small square strobes (red/blue) on the bottom of the left and right corners in the rear window. Strobes in the corners of the headlights, tail lights, and reverse lights. I can also activate the wigwags in the headlights if I'm feeling extra festive. Then of course we have the super powerful spotlight, takedown lights, and alley lights to shed some light on the subject (pun intended).

Looks like a damn Christmas tree going 70mph down the road. Rumor has it the new cars will get LED lightbars. I actually would like to keep the bars we have. The LED's don't seem to work as well during the daytime. Also, it seems that their unique look and unique flash patterns would be drunk magnets (more so than the old fashion lights).

[chris6328]

In Pa. all police/sheriff units must have red and blue lights. Volunteer firemen are permitted to have blue lights(no siren).

[rayder1]

Red white and blue to the front. Yellow and blue to the rear.

[jeeper]

WI state statute requires that law enforcement display red on the driver's side and blue on the passenger side. This goes for all lights on the car. The only clear light allowed to the front is flashing headlights. It is not allowed to display clear forward facing flashers, rotators, or strobes on LE vehicles.

Fire and EMS vehicles have different statutory guidelines for their emergency equipment.


Anyone from MN, last time I trained over there, blue was allowed only to the front. Supposedly there was testing in place to see about approving the blue lights to the front on LE vehicles also. Has that gone through??

[KY PO]

In KY it's generally all blue. Red is for firemen and other emergency vehicles. Blue is law enforcement only.

[AtlCop]

Light Bar:

Four Blue Strobes to the front
Two Clear Intersection strobes angled on each front corner of the bar
Two Side Blue Strobes - One on each end of the bar
Five Strobes across the back - Blue, Yellow, Blue, Yellow, Blue

Hideaway/Dash/Deck Lights:

One Double Strobe Front Dash and Rear Deck Blue/Clear
Four Hideaway Strobes - Two Taillights (thus Red) Two Front Corner (Clear)

[RabbitMPD]

Light Bar:

Four Blue Strobes to the front
Two Clear Intersection strobes angled on each front corner of the bar
Two Side Blue Strobes - One on each end of the bar
Five Strobes across the back - Blue, Yellow, Blue, Yellow, Blue

Hideaway/Dash/Deck Lights:

One Double Strobe Front Dash and Rear Deck Blue/Clear
Four Hideaway Strobes - Two Taillights (thus Red) Two Front Corner (Clear)
Thats hot. :D Sounds exactly the way God intended it. Please tell me you drive a B&W cruiser too.

[Bing_Oh]

Red and blue with white and yellow rear flashers. Plus the corner strobes.

Looks like a damn Christmas tree going 70mph down the road. Rumor has it the new cars will get LED lightbars. I actually would like to keep the bars we have. The LED's don't seem to work as well during the daytime. Also, it seems that their unique look and unique flash patterns would be drunk magnets (more so than the old fashion lights).
I wouldn't worry about the LED's not working well in daylight. Those things are almost TOO bright. We just put two of the E911 Galaxy LED's on and you can barely walk back to the car without blinding yourself. I've though about wearing my sunglasses on night shift...

[RabbitMPD]

Red and blue with white and yellow rear flashers. Plus the corner strobes.


I wouldn't worry about the LED's not working well in daylight. Those things are almost TOO bright. We just put two of the E911 Galaxy LED's on and you can barely walk back to the car without blinding yourself. I've though about wearing my sunglasses on night shift...
Isn't there a way to turn them off facing the front after the stop is made?

Also, I'm interested to find out if rear end collisions increase with the use of these new light bars. The light bars almost seem to be mesmerizing. I'm afraid drunks will be so busy checking out the "cool" lights that there will be an increase in officers getting rear ended on traffic stops.

Of course I have no scientific proof to back this up, just my own little prediction.

[AtlCop]

Thats hot. :D Sounds exactly the way God intended it. Please tell me you drive a B&W cruiser too.

I wish. 2005 Chevy Impala. The light bar will blind you but it is also huge.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/AtlCop/329571ac.gif

[RabbitMPD]

I wish. 2005 Chevy Impala. The light bar will blind you but it is also huge.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/AtlCop/329571ac.gif
AWWWWW THE WIMPALA!!!! You had me all excited. :D And yes, that is a rather large lightbar.

BTW, you need to change the time on your camera. It doesn't look like 1:33am when that picture was taken. :D

[Bing_Oh]

Isn't there a way to turn them off facing the front after the stop is made?

Also, I'm interested to find out if rear end collisions increase with the use of these new light bars. The light bars almost seem to be mesmerizing. I'm afraid drunks will be so busy checking out the "cool" lights that there will be an increase in officers getting rear ended on traffic stops.

Of course I have no scientific proof to back this up, just my own little prediction.
Yea, we have ours set on the standard three position switch, with position one being rear only, position two being full lightbar (plus corner strobes), and position three being sirens. They're so new that I still tend to forget to kick them over to position one after the stop, though I usually remember to do it before I re-approach.

One big drawback I've noticed is with OVI stops. I did HGN for the first time outside of a car with the LED lightbars, and discovered that the intensity of the lights actually makes it difficult. It's a problem I never had with the strobes.

Drivers do actually tend to be a little dazzled by them. I too wonder if drunks will be even more attracted to them because of the intensity factor.

[99Unit]

We use all Blue in Chicago.
There was actually a study done on what was the best. Of the two colors Red during the day, since the earth is covered with Blue light, and Blue at night since the earth is covered with red light. But the study also stated that white is by far superior. Love those strobes..
By the way don't use the take down lights when running code. The white light blocks out the colors at a distance.

[RabbitMPD]

We use all Blue in Chicago.
There was actually a study done on what was the best. Of the two colors Red during the day, since the earth is covered with Blue light, and Blue at night since the earth is covered with red light. But the study also stated that white is by far superior. Love those strobes..
By the way don't use the take down lights when running code. The white light blocks out the colors at a distance.
I've also noticed that the yellow arrowstick we have tends to block out the red and blue. Not a big concern to me though because I've heard yellow is better than red/blue when it comes to rear enders.

[Vtfuzz]

We've used all blue LED bars for a couple of years and never had a "rear end" collision.

[dbltaptm45]

Kansas: Red and Blue. Our agency just went to SOME strobes to replace some of the old rotators... LEDs??? someday :)

[Pita_146]

WI state statute requires that law enforcement display red on the driver's side and blue on the passenger side.
It is true that its red on the drivers and blue on the passengers however wisconsin state statute does not require a blue light an a police car 347.25(1) states that
"Except as provided in subs. (1m) (a), (1r) and (1s), an authorized emergency vehicle may be equipped with one or more flashing, oscillating or rotating red lights,"

and statute 347.25(1m)(a) states
A police vehicle under s. 340.01 (3) (a) may be equipped with a blue light and a red light which are flashing, oscillating or rotating.

Therefore my understanding is a police vehicle operating as an emergency vehicle MUST have a red light and MAY have a blue light along with it...at least thats what I've been told and what I understand it to be...that being said I dont think I've ever seen anything but Red and Blue

[bluelights]

An all blue light bar on a black and white cruiser looks pretty bad-***, let me tell you.

Our units are blk and white with blue led light bars, and they do look bad ***. LEOs from surrounding agencies tell us all the time how much they like the looks of our units.

[wheelcop110]

red & blue . All LED. Our department motorcycle which I work off of has combination LED and strobe, as well as flashing headlight when going code 3. They still pull out in front of me!!

[mouth]

In Maine 99% of all police use all blue, but I know of a few who use red but only on the rear of the bar. At my pd on our crown vic's we have a 12 strobe light bar all blue, plus blue mirror strobes, and a split blue and clear lens on our 2 grill lights, we use an all amber traffic bar in the back window with 2 amber strobes on the ends, and we have hide-away lights in the rear back up lights we have 20 strobes in all plus the halogen traffic director

[j706]

Red on the drivers side and blue on the passenger. Led lightbar with four strobes in back window,white strobes in the taillights and backup lights,white strobes in the front-headlight assy. and turn signals. Red and blue strobe on dash.

[gretna405]

We currently have three cars,one is a slick top with blue dash lights,red blue back window strobes,with a traffic bar stick in the middle.The other is a 1999 Ford Crown Vic with standard blue wheelen strobe lightbar.I changed the color myself.The other is a 1998 Crown VIc with red and blue strobes.Tallahassee Florida Police has some of the best lightbar systems I have ever seen.

[Florida Smokey]

Historically, my department has used all blue lights. After a lengthy study we decided to change. This gets a little confusing, so bear with me.

Our new lights change color depending on the time of day. When moving, the lights flash red and blue. When stopped during the daytime, the lights change to red only, with two amber arrowsticks in the back window. When stopped at night, the light bar is all blue, with amber arrow stick in the back window. In addition to the light bar, there is a dash light on the front window that stays blue all the time. The takedown lights are killer, even during the daytime. In addition to the regular white bulbs, the entire light bar goes to steady burn mode, and if you look at it, your retina's will smolder.

[So Fla Cop]

If the ACLU and left, liberal azzholes have their way we will all have yellow lights on Kias. May I park your car for you Mr. Jackson?

[shoe]

we use solid blue here at bso.

[2209]

Blue strobes.

My wig wags key the headlights and my take down lights too. So they both wig wag. I have to switch that switch the other way to cut the wig wags off and kick on the take downs.

[e-man]

We use the EP911 strobes and some of the older cars have a day-night switch. Night seems to be maybe 50% lower intensity but still bright as poop. Red and blue with a directional for the rear using the same strobes. Position 3 for us is the wig wags.
Only drawback on them is the takedowns are WORTHLESS.
Our cars are the Wimpalas, white with red stripes and the department name on them. Nice..

[410Adam]

Gwinnett County Police use a blue/blue with clear takedowns front light bar, and a blue/amber/blue, rear light bar.

I personally think that our lights should include red on one side or the other.

[Florida Smokey]

I have a 48 page study that FHP did on emergency lights. It has very in depth info on flash patterns, colors, types, etc. It also shows many of the lights we tested. If any of you want the document (it's a pdf file) send me a private message and I'll forward it to you. It might be helpful for any administrators that are considering changing the light package on their cars.

F.S.

[Ozicop]

Red and Blue lights...broken with white strobes

[screech60]

... red and blue - Lewis & Clark County.

[Munlaw]

Amber dash firebeam in the front window, and amber LEDs in the back window (directional/flash), although we are all Peace Officers in our agency, we are still not permitted under the Highways Traffic Act to have red or blue lights on our vehicles...

Our Peace Officer appointment is limited to Municipal and some provincial laws...

[swampcop]

All blue LED light bars. Along with blue front dash blue LED's and rear mount blue LED's.

[208]

Mass.- In our 06' Expedition>LED lightbar and grill/rear window. All blue facing front w/usual wigwags and clear strobes in headlights. To the rear nearly all blue, one red and one yellow in the light bar plus the usual strobes&flashers in the tail lights.

[Legend1bt]

I wish. 2005 Chevy Impala. The light bar will blind you but it is also huge.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/AtlCop/329571ac.gif


Thats the Tomar lightbar correct? Its bright as hell but you can see it coming a mile away. A couple of our cars have that same one. Also in the 2005 Impala do you have the V-6 or the V-8?

[Blackdog F4i]

Red and Blue here. Universally recognizable as police.

I wish we had LED bars. They are awsome and you don't have to listed to GRRRRRRRR..... while you are writing a ticket.

I don't think it really matters what you throw on top the car. 80% of motorists won't see them until you hit the air horn from right behind them.

[pujolsfan146]

Blueberries and cherries

[Slattery]

Here are some pics of the Highway patrol cars used by Victoria Police in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

http://www.inthejob.com/P4030026.jpg
http://www.inthejob.com/dmvic.jpg


http://www.inthejob.com/vic.html

Red and blue, LED are slowly replacing the strobes and rotators.