Lights, Camera, Confusion: Washington, DC's Police Lights Problem

You can never find a cop when you need one goes the familiar refrain. So why do Washingtonians complain when they can find a cop easily? In the District of Columbia, police cars have white flashing lights on all the time (or are supposed to) so that people can easily find the police when they need them, and so that bad guys will be deterred from committing crimes.

Legend has it that after visiting Israel, former DC Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey liked Israel's system of police cars flashing their lights all the time so much that he adopted this idea for Washington, DC. And that's why you see police cars with their lights on, even if there's no emergency or traffic stop in progress. But for some reason theory hasn't trickled down to reality: One big problem with these 24/7 lights is that not all police cars have their roof lights on all the time; perhaps only two-thirds of police cars keep their lights on. Even more problematic is that while the police are supposed keep their white lights flashing, some police cars constantly have their red and blue lights on. I estimate that between 10 and 15 percent of police cars that run their lights have their red and blue strobe lights on.

Now that's no fun at all: You're driving down Massachusetts Avenue and all of a sudden there's a police car behind you with flashing red and blue lights. What are you going to do?

One Cleveland Park resident told me, "I hate those always-on flashing lights. Some cars use the white lights, some the colored; it's inconsistent. I often find myself confused about whether a police vehicle with the flashing lights but no siren wants to pull me over or not." And her paranoia was nearly universal. Cynthia Rohrbeck, a Ward 3 resident, had this to say about the lights, "I really dislike them. I'm always concerned that they are really flashing at me and that I should pull over. Perhaps if it was clear to me what the police will do, if they want me to pull over, this would be easier to tolerate....This practice is also confusing to out-of-towners who don't know why the police car lights are flashing, and slow down and/or pull over."

Cindy Guthrie pointed out that these lights can hinder traffic stops because residents who know about them may just ignore them: "It's very unsettling. Makes my heart rate rise when I see one behind me. Anywhere else I've lived (half a dozen states), flashing lights would mean you were being pulled over, which often means being harassed even if the only problem is a tail light that's out. Once an MPD police car actually did pull me over and I didn't realize it for some time because it wasn't much different than their usual approach. So of course I was verbally reamed out for my slow response by the cop."

Betty, who lives on Cathedral Avenue echoed those complaints: "I find them to be very distracting. I react to them the same way I react to an ambulance or fire truck: I pull over to the side of the road. I almost always think they want to give me a ticket even though my car is in good condition and I am not speeding."

Tourists, however, are even more confused than Washington residents when it comes to these lights. "They cause out-of-towners to react as normal throughout the country by immediately pulling over to the right, often creating a minor traffic jam, but as I've witnessed, sometimes causing an accident. I saw a car side-swiped by an out-of-town driver when he immediately veered to the right when he saw the flashing lights in his mirror. This is especially dangerous here in DC since we have so many tourists who already have a problem with our traffic," said John Chelen, a District resident.

But not everyone thinks the lights are a bad idea. The police like them because the visibility may enhance public safety. Citizens like them, too, for a variety of reasons. "I personally love the idea of the flashing lights. It indicates who's on duty and probably deters quite a few crimes and traffic violations. I know personally I feel better walking down streets and seeing them pass by. Also, when I am driving and about to get on my cell phone, I think twice when I see the flashing lights in or around my vicinity." That's what Amy Ward of Washington, DC told me. Diana Hart said, "I absolutely love those lights--I know where the police are in case I might need them."

Israel is 5,800 miles from Washington, DC and has a very different security needs than the District of Columbia. What may work in Israel has irked, confused, confounded and concerned a lot of District of Columbia residents. Therese Fergo , a Washington resident, summed up the views of many people I talked with: "We are not Israel and the Israeli police and military profiles are very different from ours. The violence Israel faces is also very different --car bombs and terrorism-- so I wonder how much this was truly thought through with our various departments and official authorities, as well as the public at large."

In Washington, DC city buses now sport flashing orange lights to help prevent pedestrian accidents. Some school buses have flashing white strobes. Tow trucks and other service vehicles often drive with strobe lights on. Motorcades race up and down Washington streets with flashing lights. At what point are there simply too many cars, buses and trucks with flashing lights? Washington, DC may be already over-strobed.

Are these always-on flashing Metropolitan Police lights a good idea? There's the argument that flashing MPD car lights help reduce crime by showing a police presence. Perhaps, but the lights also let the bad guys know when the police aren't around. Let's say you're a car thief or a mugger. Are you deterred because of these flashing lights? Or do you find it helpful to know when the police aren't nearby -- especially at night when you can see those lights coming literally a mile away? Or, as may often be the case with crooks -- they're not smart enough to think in advance about all the ways in which they might be caught, and the lights don't matter much one way or the other. Because the flashing lights let people know when a police car is nearby, they do make it easier to flag down a police car, and that may be a plus for community policing.

The Metropolitan Police Department says that if you spot a police car with red and blue flashing lights on when it's not an emergency, or you see an MPD car with no lights, you should report that to the police.

Maybe the white flashing lights are good for public safety. I don't know and I don't think there's any way to know for certain. You can do study after study, but some things are just not analyzable through studies, and you have to go with your gut. But what's clear --100 percent clear-- is that the inconsistent use of these lights and especially the use of red and blue flashing lights for non-emergencies is raising the blood pressure of law-abiding drivers (and causing them to pull over to the side of the road needlessly). Worse, the red and blue flashing lights are making drivers immune to real emergencies. "I wasn't opposed to them until recently. I was driving along Fessenden Street and noticed a police car several blocks behind me with its lights flashing. I also noticed cars pulling over and snickered to myself, thinking folks had been fooled by the lights. But as the car sped up close to me, I suddenly realized I need to pull over too, as, this time, the lights were for real. I think they may have been slightly different from the usual always-on pattern, but I'm not totally sure of that," reports Elise Brown Hughes of Washington, DC. Other drivers say that they now just don't bother to pull over for police cars with flashing red and blue lights because they figure it's part of the police's always-on plan.

What's the solution to this problem? It might be this simple: Police cars should display either white only lights or no flashing lights. There are times when common sense is the best idea.