Why do cops have red and blue lights?

[Lunarcade]

Why? There's some reason, but I can't remember for the life of me... Anyone know?

 

[BDawg]

Depends where you are...

In the south, a lot of the cops only have blue lights. Some places up north, they only have red.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Depends where you are...

In the south, a lot of the cops only have blue lights. Some places up north, they only have red.

Also, here in Texas we have both colors...

 

[rgwalt]

Red and green would be too X-Mas like.

Ryan

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

duh... stars and stripes maybe? Duh... national colors maybe? Duh... because black and puke green don't go together maybe?

nik

 

[Waveslidin]

Va Beach, Virginia...we have all blue lights. I know...I've seen them quite a few times.......

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt
duh... stars and stripes maybe? Duh... national colors maybe? Duh... because black and puke green don't go together maybe?

nik

I bet that's not the reason.

Police have always been known as blue. Red however has been the color of emergency, such as fire trucks and ambulances. IMHO, the police lights should always be blue and others as red.

 

[rahvin]

Because the Federal DOT says that blue is a color reserved for law enforcement. Red is for warning/stop (stop lights and all) and amber (orange) is for construction/warning. Throw red and blue together and you have warning/stop, police. Colors mean things, ever wonder why we don't have blue stop lights? Its because green is designated the safe color, red is the warning pay attention color (and means stop generally).

 

[DougK62]

Back in the day all of the squad cars around here had blue/white lights. Now they all have red/blue. I heard that they switched over because the red/blue can be seen easier at greater distances.

 

[TechieZer0]

Because Indian Summer and Mint were already taken as other colors?