KY State Police used the 17 mid 50s into the 60s, then for a short period, some cars were equipped with 14s as they came into service. KSP was notoriously frugal (read: they could squeeze the buffalo off a nickel) and reused a lot of equipment (unless it was damaged beyond repair). In the 70s, a rich uncle died and they went from grey cars to white with dark blue hoods and trunk lids and all equipped with TwinSonics (and back to a PITA bulb change). That didn't last long and in the 80s, they went back to all white, then grey cars. Oh yeah, that's when they went with the Darth Vader Whelen strobe, too.
Like Chicago, KSP wanted to distinguish their cars from other emergency vehicles, so they switched to blue lights in the 60s. When other PDs and sheriffs started switching to blue, they tried to prevent them but the state legislature said no to KSP--
all police will use blue lights, and blue only. It wasn't until the 90s that police could use red/blue lights.
What's interesting about the 17 and 14 is that they have the same distance between bulbs which is designed to give the flash a "flicker" effect--as the bulb passes the eye and rotates out of sight, the other bulb comes into view allowing the eye to adjust from the previous flash for a better flash effect. At least that's what the Federal rep told me in the late 60s.
