Why do police vehicles sit with their lights on?
Discussion
captainaverage said:
Headlights at night time
From what I understand all the various computers and radio bits they have in the cars can take a while to boot up. There's a special system I believe that allows officers to actually lock and immobilise the car while the engine is still running, allowing them to pop into a store to grab a sandwich or something without having to then reboot everything when they come out a couple of minutes later. I saw this once in Castle Donnington, police car was parked up with no occupants yet the engine was still going. As to why they park up with their headlights on, assuming their engine will be running for the above reason then any cars with auto lights at night will indeed have the headlights on. No harm in having headlights on, unless of course they're parked facing oncoming traffic on the wrong side.
Muddle238 said:
From what I understand all the various computers and radio bits they have in the cars can take a while to boot up. There's a special system I believe that allows officers to actually lock and immobilise the car while the engine is still running, allowing them to pop into a store to grab a sandwich or something without having to then reboot everything when they come out a couple of minutes later. I saw this once in Castle Donnington, police car was parked up with no occupants yet the engine was still going.
This 'special system' is the 'Run lock' function. These days mosty fitted on traffic cars, ARVs and the likes, and less likely to be fitted to your average response shift vehicle (since they won't have all the slow booting kit like ANPR computers etc) 
WolvesWill said:
Muddle238 said:
From what I understand all the various computers and radio bits they have in the cars can take a while to boot up. There's a special system I believe that allows officers to actually lock and immobilise the car while the engine is still running, allowing them to pop into a store to grab a sandwich or something without having to then reboot everything when they come out a couple of minutes later. I saw this once in Castle Donnington, police car was parked up with no occupants yet the engine was still going.
This 'special system' is the 'Run lock' function. These days mosty fitted on traffic cars, ARVs and the likes, and less likely to be fitted to your average response shift vehicle (since they won't have all the slow booting kit like ANPR computers etc) Greendubber said:
Response vehicles have run lock, they're often used on road closures so need to be sat for time with the lights on. We have it on all our marked vehicles, even the public order vans.
I parked up next to a plod X5 at Watford Gap services. Engine running & the BiB were in the queue at McDonalds(!!!!). Seemed like rather a waste of diesel.Biker 1 said:
Greendubber said:
Response vehicles have run lock, they're often used on road closures so need to be sat for time with the lights on. We have it on all our marked vehicles, even the public order vans.
I parked up next to a plod X5 at Watford Gap services. Engine running & the BiB were in the queue at McDonalds(!!!!). Seemed like rather a waste of diesel.Better to waste 50p of diesel than turn the engine off and kill the battery. All the gubbins in plod cars nowadays has a massive drain on the battery. (ANPR, multiple cameras, recording equipment for the above, radio, black box)
Biker 1 said:
Greendubber said:
Response vehicles have run lock, they're often used on road closures so need to be sat for time with the lights on. We have it on all our marked vehicles, even the public order vans.
I parked up next to a plod X5 at Watford Gap services. Engine running & the BiB were in the queue at McDonalds(!!!!). Seemed like rather a waste of diesel.wiliferus said:
Better to waste 50p of diesel than turn the engine off and kill the battery. All the gubbins in plod cars nowadays has a massive drain on the battery. (ANPR, multiple cameras, recording equipment for the above, radio, black box)
I expect the electrical systems are upgraded to deal with the additional loads of installed systems.Alucidnation said:
wiliferus said:
Better to waste 50p of diesel than turn the engine off and kill the battery. All the gubbins in plod cars nowadays has a massive drain on the battery. (ANPR, multiple cameras, recording equipment for the above, radio, black box)
I expect the electrical systems are upgraded to deal with the additional loads of installed systems....flattening Mrs Miggins on the way.
Ooops. Let's see the onboard video and logging, then? Oh. Can't, because the computers hadn't finished booting up.
Cue outrage - "What are they hiding?!?!?"
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