Patrol vehicles, what do you get to drive?

[ocp]

the only issues with the purple is at night, sometimes law enforcement will think the lightbar is blue when the bar is off. during the day no problem. 99% of the time we don't have any issues, as long as we don't run any of the lighting on the city streets. we have been running our patrol vehicles this way for 4 years, and now we are starting to see other patrol services in the area going with purple mostly in-house departments.

one issue that the local police has advised us on and it has nothing to do with my department, is that there is one or two security officers here in Columbus that have been making traffic stops or pulling cars over. this is making the other departments/companies look bad.

do any of you on this forum have this problem in your area now or in the past?

[Charger]

Unfortunately, yes... This is the key thing that tends to make LEOs upset about security vehicles that have lightbars... All it takes is a few bad apples, ya know? There's one town in particular that had such a large problem with it, that they actually passed a city ordinance making rooftop lightbars illegal to own by any private security provider... And actually allows the LEOs to CONFISCATE the bar if they see one.... Forced all the companies that operate in that area to switch to a slick-top setup.... A little excessive in my opinion, but I can understand where they're coming from.

[VertigoODO]

Unfortunately, yes... This is the key thing that tends to make LEOs upset about security vehicles that have lightbars... All it takes is a few bad apples, ya know? There's one town in particular that had such a large problem with it, that they actually passed a city ordinance making rooftop lightbars illegal to own by any private security provider... And actually allows the LEOs to CONFISCATE the bar if they see one.... Forced all the companies that operate in that area to switch to a slick-top setup.... A little excessive in my opinion, but I can understand where they're coming from.

LOL, as a matter of a fact yes, check out this link. These guys practice it, and an emplyee of theres, named Sands pulled over a judge recently. Assholes, they cause so many problems and we are shocked that they havent been shut down as of yet.

http://www.nationalpublicsafety.com/

[Jackhole]

if you were asking about the lightbar, its all purple to the front (the white takedown lights dont flash), the rear is red with amber flashers. we are looking at new L.E.D bars here soon, our chief is looking at the fronts being green / white, and keeping the rear the same.

FYI, purple lights are for funeral processions.

[davis002]

I apologize for the dark picture, but it gives you an idea. Lightbar is clear/amber to the front, and red/amber to the rear.

[Charger]

LOL, as a matter of a fact yes, check out this link. These guys practice it, and an emplyee of theres, named Sands pulled over a judge recently. Assholes, they cause so many problems and we are shocked that they havent been shut down as of yet.

http://www.nationalpublicsafety.com/

Ick, freeservers (aka ad-infested) page.. Do my eyes deceive me, or do they have red/blue on the front of that motorcycle?

Davis002: Sweet lookin ride

[Lawson]

I apologize for the dark picture, but it gives you an idea. Lightbar is clear/amber to the front, and red to the rear.

Dayum are you hiring?

[WKSecurity]

Willis-Knighton got some new 06 impalas a while back. badged-up exactly like Shreveport Police, but instead of them saying Shreveport police, it says Willis-Knighton Police. Got a full lightbar,strobes, Code 3 siren, PA system...the works. I'll get a picture up ASAP.

[N. A. Corbier]

Ick, freeservers (aka ad-infested) page.. Do my eyes deceive me, or do they have red/blue on the front of that motorcycle?

Davis002: Sweet lookin ride

Stock photo, most likely.

[N. A. Corbier]

FYI, purple lights are for funeral processions.

Not in every state, though. Just like green is not for NIMS Command Vehicles in every state.

[Echos13]

Purple would be very, very, strange to see. I have never seen purple strobes.

Have not seen anything in Florida yet. Though the new LED FHP lights do have a slight tint of purple to them at an angle. The Polk County Sheriff Office have new Chevys with these all blue LEDs in-cased in an all clear housing. It looks really weird. But man is it bright!

[Jackhole]

Not in every state, though. Just like green is not for NIMS Command Vehicles in every state.

I thought that was a universal thing. I know purple is for funeral processions in NY, but the V&T law makes no mention of purple lights.

[Jackhole]

Have not seen anything in Florida yet. Though the new LED FHP lights do have a slight tint of purple to them at an angle. The Polk County Sheriff Office have new Chevys with these all blue LEDs in-cased in an all clear housing. It looks really weird. But man is it bright!

They're probably Whelen Libertys. We have those (all blue) and they're SUPER bright.

[N. A. Corbier]

I'll see if I can get any of the polk guys to give me a pic of their Liberties.

I have a client who has Whelen LFLs in Green. Whelen says that they don't make them in green, he had to special order the lightbars, because really nobody uses Green in their primary customer base.

[SecTrainer]

LED Bars

Some of the LED bars are "stealthy" in that it's impossible to tell what color they are when not operating (they just look clear, basically, even though they might be blue, red, white, amber or green when operating).

I have a different take on all of this, probably, than most. When I was acting chief of a small PD, I was very happy (for the most part) to have security patrols running around town, and the more like police cars they appeared to be, the MORE I liked it. In other words, they somewhat made up for my own small force of two units in terms of presenting a "protection presence" to the bad guys that might be cruising through town looking for trouble and couldn't tell from any distance whether they were looking at a security or a police unit.

We had very good relations with the security officers and even considered giving some of them special commissions...until the city attorney (those darned attorneys) nixed the idea for liability reasons.

Given the climate in some communities, however, I'd be very tempted just to go with well-marked slick tops. With spotlights, deck bar, corner strobes, wigwags, etc., the point still gets across if the car itself is commonly used in LE and isn't some kind of a clown car like a VW bug or something. Most security venues can do well with this kind of gear and don't need a bar, IMHO. I'd rather spend the money on night vision gear, in-car video and computer gear anyway.

Can consider all white or even all black, all navy, etc. There are also a lot of two-tone combinations that provide a "protective" appearance w/o stepping on the black-and-whites' turf. Blue/gold with gold shield, for instance. There's also a very dark shade of green - *almost* black - that together with white looks a lot like B&W at night, but does avoid actually being a B&W.

On a different topic, I can't for the life of me understand why security companies - and their insurance carriers - don't get together and hammer the state legislatures to eliminate, by specific legislation, the ambiguities about security arrest and detainment powers. The only people that benefit from these ambiguities persisting are lawyers.