Cars with blue indicators

[Panamax]

Are blue indicators on sober coloured saloon cars a "scene" thing or is it something to do with the increasing number of unmarked police cars around and about?

Either way, it seems many police cars now have their "blues" included within the normal lamp housings.

[Dingu]

Surely you would include them in the normal housings where possible? Saves on the amount of work required to convert and then surely easier to decommission afterwards.

Not to mention the benefits for an unmarked car of being less obvious.

[Quhet]

I seem to remember Ford Orions in the 90s being modded with blue indicators.

[anonymous-user]

Are we talking blue bulbs inside clear indicator housings?

Most blue lights fitted on police vehicles these days are clear LEDs. On unmarked trafpol stuff you'll see what look like square or, more recently, small round indicator repeaters mounted on the bumpers, which are actually blue flashers when they're activated. They are/were particularly obvious on unmarked 3 Series fleets, where they started fitting them on the upright grille slats. Police vehicles also sometimes illuminate steady blue lights at the ends of the roof moutned unit and drive around like that, which seems to be a recent thing?

[Muddle238]

Some unmarked emergency vehicles use covert lighting, one option is to fit a blue omni-directional LED inside an existing reflector housing for either the rear indicators or reverse lights. The rear lights still work as normal, just there’s a second light source added which gives the illusion the whole reflector is flashing.

As LED tech has improved, so have the covert lighting solutions for unmarked police cars and the like.

[G-wiz]

Some cars in the USA appear to have flashing red indicators at the rear, like a flashing brake light.

[Panamax]

Yes, in the US some rear indicators are red (i.e. they flash the brake light) and some are additional amber lights, but that's different.

What I'm seeing in UK is some cars on trunk roads that seem to use blue indicators from time to time. I'm unclear whether they're actual police cars or wannabes pretending to be police.