An Overview of the Essentials of Police Car Equipment – Lights & Sounds

Police cars are equipped with all sorts of safety and warning equipment, including lights, sounds, radios, and communications systems, all of which are necessary tools that allow police officers to perform their duties. They increase safety levels, making sure both the officers and the pedestrians are protected, they up the communication and response time between colleagues, and they ensure all traffic participants are aware of your presence. Today, we’re taking a look at two staples of police car equipment – lights and sounds. Make sure you stick around until the end because we’ve got a few recs you definitely don’t want to miss!

Lights

Police lights are not only the most necessary but also the most flexible kind of safety and emergency equipment for police cars. Their uses are many: they alert pedestrians and other drivers of your presence, they provide them with visual clues whenever there is an emergency on the road, and they can help multiple police vehicles stay in sync with each other and communicate using visual signals.

Typically, we mount police lights on the roof of the vehicle, although nowadays, there are tons of options for grille, interior, and rear lights, so you can mix, match, and experiment depending on your goals and task at hand. Further, modern LED bulbs come in a variety of colors and feature tons of flashing patterns.

Most commonly, police vehicles will sport red and blue lights, that is, either alone or in a combination, depending on what they are doing. However, you might often see white and amber lights mounted on vehicles working in low-light or nighttime conditions or on SUVs and other more heavy-duty vehicles that tend to go off-road, for example, when patrolling the border. The purpose of these auxiliary lights is, of course, to provide illumination and make everyone’s job easier.

Some Recs

• Full-Size Light Bars: This K-Force® 47 TIR Super Take Down® LED Full Size Light Bar is a proper beast. With 30 flash patterns, 120 LED bulbs, as well as steady burn features, it will serve you well in pretty much any situation.
• Hideaways: If you need something more discreet, look no further than these Flare™ 12 LED Hideaways. They’re compact, but with 32 flashing and syncable patterns, they’ll do the job just as well as some more robust solutions on the market. Remember, discretion is key!

Sounds

When talking about sounds, it’s usually sirens that come up — and for a good reason. We said lights are the most crucial piece of police car equipment, but in truth, sirens are not at all lagging behind in terms of importance. Their recognizable blare signals your presence from afar and warns even those who can’t see your vehicle (and thus your lights) that there is something potentially dangerous happening on the road.

Traditionally, sirens used to be mounted on the front of the vehicle, and we still do that most of the time, although we can put them on the roof as well. Just as light bars come with many colors and flashing patterns, sirens can produce a wide range of sounds. You’ve probably heard most of them by now, as their characteristic wailing and yelping sounds are rather commonplace.

In addition to sirens, we have to say a few words on speakers and public address (PA) systems.

Speakers are more straightforward: you use them to boost the volume of the siren and as a channel for audio communication. They can be used for communication with other police vehicles, with pedestrians, and with dispatchers back at the station. In short, they’re an essential tool in emergencies that require coordination.

Public address systems, or PAs, allow the officer to amplify their own voice when addressing pedestrians, crowds, etc. They can be used to coordinate traffic or to give warnings, issue instructions, or make announcements in crowded areas where it’s hard to hear what somebody is saying, for example, during a protest.

Some Recs

• Sirens: Looking for a new siren? Check out this Apex® 100 Watt Emergency Vehicle Police Siren & Control Box kit. This baby has an amplifier output power of 100 watts, radio rebroadcast features, and independent siren tones. In short, you’ll feel like you’re at a concert and not on active duty!

• Speakers: As for the speakers, you’ll probably be fine with a mid-range model such as this 100-Watt Cone Speaker model. It’s a 100-watt speaker output, it’s compact, and it’s got weather-proofed casing. It also comes with a mounting bracket, so it’ll be up on your rooftop within minutes.

SpeedTech Lights – Your Most Trusted Vehicle Equipment Provider

No matter whether you need lights, sirens, PAs, or any other kind of police vehicle equipment, SpeedTech Lights is your one-stop shop! All SpeedTech Lights products are designed with the utmost care and with nothing but reliability, quality, and affordability in mind, so they accommodate the needs of law enforcers of all kinds.

Our LED light bars and 30- and 100-watt sirens provide maximum visibility and ensure you remain in control both on the road and in urban crowds. Naturally, our products come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so they’ll fit not only cruisers but SUVs and motorcycles, too, and if you can’t find anything to your liking, we offer custom light bars as well. And when it comes to colors, don’t fret – we have single-, dual-, and multi-color LED bars with tons of adjustable patterns.

When you’re out on duty, time is of the essence, which is why the SpeedTech Lights customer support is available at all times, ready to guide you through the purchasing process. Also, while our products are all sold and shipped at competitive prices, be sure you keep an eye on our website if you want to catch some of the regular clearance sales!