Today I was informed that they are considering removing the red/blue lights from the CSO vehicles and replacing them with yellow lenses.
I believe that we work in a difficult situation. We are not patrolmen, and for the most part don't pretend to be. But we have to have a certain mantel of authority to accomplish our task, which is to uphold local ordinances. I feel that we work at a greater disadvantage when the citizens of our community see the amber/yellow lights than the standard red/blue. The yellow lights remind them of tow trucks and city crews and that makes them less inclined to obey a request from us.
Your thoughts please.

Our CSO vehicles have always had just amber lights as we do not respond "code 3" to accidents or make enforcement stops.

California vehicle code states a vehicle must pull over for authorized emergency vehicles exhibiting a red light and sounding a siren.

I have not experienced any authority issues with citizens due to the color of the lights. Usually they feel we have the same authority as sworn officers even though our cars/vans are a different color. However, "POLICE" is prominently marked on the vehicles.

Richard,

I can't tell you how many times our dept has switched from amber, to red and blue and back to amber again. Every time someone from upper management gets a wild hair, they switch again. We have had CSO's in squads with red and blue lights for about 5-7 years now. I agree with you that red and blue do command more respect than the amber lights do. About 10 years ago, when we were in an "amber phase", I had stopped to issue a parking violation when the back door to my squad opened. An elderly woman proceeded to put her packages in my squad and requested that I drive her to Jewel Food Store. She thought I was a taxi cab!!!
I have been with Downers Grove PD for 18 years now and can empathize with you. Just a thought....Woodridge PD CSO's strobe lightbar is yellow in front and red and blue facing the rear. Good luck!
Tim

I have been with the Orlando Police Department as CSO for 22 years and I am a Supervisor. We intially had amber lights and changed many years ago to red and white stobe on the visibar. It has worked extremely well and gives us the authority we need at accident/crash scenes. I do recall when the amber was on our vehicles and I was flagged down by a tourist as he thought I was a taxi! Our vehicles say Police City of Orlando and also Community Service Officer in several areas on the vehicle. If I can be of further assistance I can be reached at 407-246-2502. Good luck! Marge

Municipal Officer - Ontario, Canada:
Our vehicle is equipped with white strobes at the front and red strobes to the rear (undercover package) with amber strobes front and back. So, we dont use the lights as a "command presence".
Our Bylaw Enforcement officers, assigned to respond to residential sites, only have an amber light bar along the back window. Blue lights are for plow vehicles. Red lights (facing forward) are reserved only for Police officers in Ontario.
If you want to make a "command presence" and only have the ambers, make them strobes!!! Get rid of any rotating lights. "Car 54, where are you?"

Scott

I think that working with amber lights on a squad car is like working with a uniform shirt and blue jeans. It just does not have the same impact. The biggest change would come when someone changed departments from one style to another rather than making a change within the department.
For those of you with accredited departments, CALEA only states that "vehicles will have emergency lighting". I would not interpret that to mean amber but some might.
Last word is that they are not going to change anything (now if I can get a computer that actually works)!

I am a CSO in Virginia Beach, VA. Our patrol units have amber visi strobe lights, ambe strobe lights on the rear deck window and amber lights mounted in the grill. The visi bar along with the amber lights has white lights also. Our head lights flash on and off also. This gives us the visibilty that we need. What I feel we really need are the loud air horns that fire and rescue use. We all know how difficult it is in making our way thru traffic when we are responding to an accident. How does your department use these horns and or sirens?

I rarely need a siren for anything. My trick has been to know how to get to a scene the most efficient way rather than the common way. For years I beat the patrol officers and they never figured out how. The amber lights themselves are causing you the most problem. Fire department air horns are usually real air horns and run off the air pressure supplied to the air brakes.
Is it even legal to disobey the traffic laws with amber lights? In my opinion amber is not an emergency color, blue and red are. Our state law allows a squad with emergency lights to disobey the traffic laws and you just might be leaving yourself and the department open to a huge problem if you get into an accident on the way to a scene. you need to talk to someone that knows Virgina law.

Hey guys,

Just be grateful you have lighting equipment. At my dept, the CSO units have no lighting equipment whatsoever. And oddly enough....I still beat the Ofcrs to most of their calls.....

In my opinion, CSO units should have Code 3 equipment, and the CSO should be trained to drive in such a manner. This would be useful for responding to accident scenes, marjor disasters, or any other situation where it would be warranted.

The Tucson, AZ police department CSOs are fully integrated into the patrol squads. We use the same patrol cars as commissioned officers do. A squad (usually 6-8 officers, a CSO, a lead police officer (LPO) and a sergeant) has 9-10 assigned vehicles in the squad pool. We take one of them. It has the same red and blue overheads, wig-wags, take-downs and alley lights, MTCs, radio, etc. as any other officer uses. We respond to ANY traffic accident unless there is a fight-brewing situation in which case we usually end up doing the accident report while an officer handles the disorderly conduct. We could not do what we do with a vehicle equipped with amber lights - we would be totally ignored. As it is, the Tucson motoring public barely responds when commissioned officers run code 3!

I work for a smaller city in MN only about 25,000 ppl but i believe that the red and blue lights do make a huge difference. Now we may be a little different bc we are alowed to respond CODE 3 to medicals and PI's if we are certified. THe only amber lights we have is in our arrowstick, and i believe that bc we do have the reds/blues we do get more of the respect that we as CSO's all deserve. NOne of us when doing our jobs needs to be confused

ADDENDUM: that last sentence should read...none of us when doing our jobs wants/needs to be confused with just a city worker of streets worker or anything like that.

I agree that CSOs should have Red/Blue lights. I am not a CSO (hoping to become one this summer in MN!) but I know that whenever I see a CSO vehicle with red/blue lights it shows me their authority. I have also seens CSOs going Code 3 to accidents and the only thing that makes me get out of the way for them are those red and blue lights. If they had amber lights I would be hesitant to move over. A park district in MN has vehicles with amber lights and when you see their vehicles you think of them as maintanence (though they don't carry anything on their belts except gloves and don't respond to accidents, only medicals within the park). So overall, red/blue lights should stay!

I have to agree with everything that has been said here in relation to keeping red/blue's on CSO vehicles. Simply put, I know that at least the side of my squad says nothing but "Police" and I think that with that said we need the red/blue. I think the reason that some departments want amber is because ther are people out there who are CSO's that have this complex that they are cops....I know that 99.9% of us out there know our place..and are probably reminded of it inside our department. But I know those same people who remind us that we are simple CSO's still want us to get the same respect when we are out on the street....enough said I think my point is made.