Can highways maintenance vehicles use blue lights?

[Chris Bertram]

Chief Inspector Morse's car in the TV series was definitely his own (he was Thames Valley CID), though I don't ever remember him using a blue light on it.

Given the backstory of that Jag I imagine anyone trying to modify it would've been thumped...

It did seem to be fitted with police radio/cellphone capablity, or whatever was standard for the time.

[Nicola_Jayne]

Chief Inspector Morse's car in the TV series was definitely his own (he was Thames Valley CID), though I don't ever remember him using a blue light on it.

Given the backstory of that Jag I imagine anyone trying to modify it would've been thumped...

It did seem to be fitted with police radio/cellphone capablity, or whatever was standard for the time.

fitting a 2 way radio to a car is fairly trivial (simpler than wiring a towbar light socket as you just need one or both of a permanent live and a switched live) and ironically easier on a 1960s to 1990s car than it is on modern vehicles ... there were at one time even docking stations for handhelds which provided charging / vehicle power and in some cases the option to use a vehicle antenna instead of the handsets

[AndyB]

Magnetic lights of course are no longer needed as any unmarked vehicle requiring blues and twos simply has them in the light clusters.

There’s something at the back of my mind that when this was all starting to happen and light bars became restricted to liveried cars, the placement of sirens behind radiator grilles was the bright idea of an ordinary officer in PSNI. Why no senior officer anywhere in the UK paid to think of such a solution actually did so is another question.

[Ruperts Trooper]

Chief Inspector Morse's car in the TV series was definitely his own (he was Thames Valley CID), though I don't ever remember him using a blue light on it.

Given the backstory of that Jag I imagine anyone trying to modify it would've been thumped...

It did seem to be fitted with police radio/cellphone capablity, or whatever was standard for the time.

Radio telephones were used before the advent of "cell phones" or mobiles as we know them - my IT department had to carry the cost of radio telephones in the directors cars back in the mid-80s - they cost £2,500 each then compared to their cars costing £10,000.

[wallmeerkat]

Magnetic lights of course are no longer needed as any unmarked vehicle requiring blues and twos simply has them in the light clusters.

There’s something at the back of my mind that when this was all starting to happen and light bars became restricted to liveried cars, the placement of sirens behind radiator grilles was the bright idea of an ordinary officer in PSNI. Why no senior officer anywhere in the UK paid to think of such a solution actually did so is another question.

I imagine that it was beneficial for PSNI to make their unmarked cars as conspicuous as possible, hiding lights and sirens. I remember even the 90s things like unmarked Sierras they wouldn't have blue lights but would flash their full beams, a bit like you'd see in episodes of the Sweeney.

[trickstat]

Magnetic lights of course are no longer needed as any unmarked vehicle requiring blues and twos simply has them in the light clusters.

There’s something at the back of my mind that when this was all starting to happen and light bars became restricted to liveried cars, the placement of sirens behind radiator grilles was the bright idea of an ordinary officer in PSNI. Why no senior officer anywhere in the UK paid to think of such a solution actually did so is another question.

I imagine that it was beneficial for PSNI to make their unmarked cars as conspicuous as possible, hiding lights and sirens. I remember even the 90s things like unmarked Sierras they wouldn't have blue lights but would flash their full beams, a bit like you'd see in episodes of the Sweeney.

Like many cars, the Sierra, other than the more basic early variants, doesn't have a grille.

[wallmeerkat]

Magnetic lights of course are no longer needed as any unmarked vehicle requiring blues and twos simply has them in the light clusters.

There’s something at the back of my mind that when this was all starting to happen and light bars became restricted to liveried cars, the placement of sirens behind radiator grilles was the bright idea of an ordinary officer in PSNI. Why no senior officer anywhere in the UK paid to think of such a solution actually did so is another question.

I imagine that it was beneficial for PSNI to make their unmarked cars as conspicuous as possible, hiding lights and sirens. I remember even the 90s things like unmarked Sierras they wouldn't have blue lights but would flash their full beams, a bit like you'd see in episodes of the Sweeney.

Like many cars, the Sierra, other than the more basic early variants, doesn't have a grille.

True the aero era, not sure if grilled cars like the mk2 Cavalier had an armoured variant. I remember my dad picking up a cheap mk2 Astra and looking to fit spotlights, but it had the full height crate grille