Back to Black & White !

[TheGatekeeper]

Black and white future for Calgary police cars


Interesting piece...


The argument to go back B&W is that 3M decals are far to expensive ... If I remember well, the reason to go all white in many departments in the mid-90s was exactly the opposite, that a dual-tone paint job was more costly than a basic white car with decals...Go figure !


However the other argument, that a B&W is more recognizable from the public and possibly air support units does make very good sense...

 

[charlie82]

What about the loss in low light visibility due to the reflective 3M striping? Unless they were using vinyl to begin with, I dont see how this saves money, especially since they are applying a "wrap" to the new cars anyways.

 

[Hollywood]

Regardless of the how or why, it's always nice to see another department return to black and white.

 

[Clarence H]

A lot of Minnesota departments, at least in the metro twin cities area, have gone back to black & whites. I think it takes away from some of the individuality of some of the departments, but in the suburbs, it looks like a city has a bigger police force, because until you get close enough to see the individual city names, it looks like a larger unfied force.


Clarence


Police Cars


Some are older photos, St. Paul has switched back to black & white.

 

[ohpsv]

Here in central Ohio, many of the police officers I've spoken with are actually getting bored with the nostalgic black and white paint. According to some, it's not necessarily the fact that their vehicles are black and white, but rather the lack of 'distinction' between their cars (including all-clear LED lightbars) and other departments in the area who have also adopted the standard black and white scheme over the past few years.

 

[nerdly_dood]

They could always use a full set of reflective stripes in addition to the black and white paint, and there is a lot more variety in available lightbars than just a clear-lens red and blue Liberty that they could use to give the cars a more distinctive look. Quit being such a bunch of squares, think outside the box, put an 18" mini Excalibur on the cars, or a Model 14 with a full set of interior lights, or a JetSolaris or something.


Hell, even with just a 48-inch Liberty there's a nearly infinite variety of setups - it's got a modular design so you can put any color in any position with your choice of effective and/or worthless flash patterns, and any combination of clear or colored lenses. There's absolutely no reason to have the same boring design as the one in the picture on Whelen's website.

 

[TheGatekeeper]

Here in central Ohio, many of the police officers I've spoken with are actually getting bored with the nostalgic black and white paint. According to some, it's not necessarily the fact that their vehicles are black and white, but rather the lack of 'distinction' between their cars (including all-clear LED lightbars) and other departments in the area who have also adopted the standard black and white scheme over the past few years.

Another oxymoron I guess: officers work "uniform" and want "distinction" at the same time ?