subject: Selection Criteria For Police Car Lights [print this page] Police car lights should be such that they should not fail at any time during the midst of an operation. They must have the required color choices, and must have a high level of brightness but must also lend itself to sufficient concealment when situation demands. It should also be energy efficient. Finally, like any other product, police car lights should also be cheap, or at least cost effective.
Many of these criteria will be satisfied by opting for LED lights, whether in light bars or in smaller deck or dash lights. The lights have a very high level of luminosity, and can be adjusted to provide different levels of brightness. It is also suitable for the different colors required in police car lights. With halogen lights it is necessary to use colored lenses to give the necessary color effects whereas color is intrinsic to LED or the light emitting diodes mechanism where light is produced by electro luminescence. Since the semiconductor used for creating light decides color here, the light will be colorless when switched off and will allow better concealment.
The flip of a switch instantly activates LED lights and this too makes them an ideal choice for police car lights. Instant activation is important while chasing suspects or during stealth operations where the lights might have to be switched modes instantly from hidden to exposed. Further, its light is directional, which again is a quality that will aid greatly in focusing. LED lights score another point by being energy efficient as well.
While all these make it the ideal police car lights, it does not come cheap. It is expensive compared to halogen and strobe lights and may not fit the budget of all departments, especially where the unit is cash strapped. Still, it is cost effective for a wide range of applications and that might still tilt the balance in favor of LED when all things are taken into consideration.
The cost effectiveness of LED as police car lights is claimed on the basis of its long life. In the background of a human being's active duty life, LED lights have to be considered immortal. An LED bulb has such a long life so that even if its host vehicle speeds on the street 10 hours a day, the bulb might still serve the vehicle dutifully for four decades. From such a long-term perspective, it will turn out to be very cheap.
Still, it will be cheap only if the light will be so consistently used. When these are used as police car lights on vehicles that are not used for anything other than routine patrolling, it will not be possible to get any benefit out of its long life and by that yardstick will not be cost effective for the user. So its cost will have to be balanced with its type of usage, to decide its cost effectiveness. For police vehicles that serve sparsely populated areas, and are not involved in high profile crime solving, cheap halogen lights might do an equally good job as police car lights.
