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N6ATF wrote:AFAIK, as long as the lightbar does not contain blue or red, it's legal. Having a black and white vehicle is not a crime.

Oh yes it is a crime....

Vehicle Resembling Law Enforcement Vehicle
27605. No person shall own or operate a motor vehicle painted in the manner described in Section 40800 to resemble a motor vehicle used by a peace officer or traffic officer on duty for the primary purpose of enforcing the provisions of Division 10 (commencing with Section 20000) or Division 11 (commencing with Section 21000) pursuant to Section 40800.

The provisions of this section shall not apply to vehicles which are painted one solid color or to vehicles first registered on or before January 1, 1979. These provisions shall not apply to vehicles which are any of the following:

(a) Owned by vehicle manufacturers or dealers.

(b) Used by law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of the provisions of Division 10 (commencing with Section 20000) or Division 11 (commencing with Section 21000).

(c) Owned by persons or companies who use the vehicles exclusively for movie or television production and display signs stating "movie car" prominently on the doors.

(d) Owned by persons or companies who use the vehicles exclusively for funeral escort purposes.

(e) Motorcycles, as defined in Section 400, without insignia.

Amended Ch. 340, Stats. 1981. Effective January 1, 1982.

I see no mention of the colors black and white being criminalized in the statute you pasted.

Excellent! It is indeed unlawful to drive a vehicle that is painted like a black and white vehicle. Over the years I only saw 2-3 black and white cars which were not police cars.

jp186 wrote:

N6ATF wrote:AFAIK, as long as the lightbar does not contain blue or red, it's legal. Having a black and white vehicle is not a crime.

Oh yes it is a crime....

Vehicle Resembling Law Enforcement Vehicle
27605. No person shall own or operate a motor vehicle painted in the manner described in Section 40800 to resemble a motor vehicle used by a peace officer or traffic officer on duty for the primary purpose of enforcing the provisions of Division 10 (commencing with Section 20000) or Division 11 (commencing with Section 21000) pursuant to Section 40800.

The provisions of this section shall not apply to vehicles which are painted one solid color or to vehicles first registered on or before January 1, 1979. These provisions shall not apply to vehicles which are any of the following:

(a) Owned by vehicle manufacturers or dealers.

(b) Used by law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of the provisions of Division 10 (commencing with Section 20000) or Division 11 (commencing with Section 21000).

(c) Owned by persons or companies who use the vehicles exclusively for movie or television production and display signs stating "movie car" prominently on the doors.

(d) Owned by persons or companies who use the vehicles exclusively for funeral escort purposes.

(e) Motorcycles, as defined in Section 400, without insignia.

Amended Ch. 340, Stats. 1981. Effective January 1, 1982.

So one or all of these things are not happening:

People are not reporting impersonators nearly as often as they actually exist.
BSIS is not inspecting Private Patrol Operators' vehicles.
Police are not enforcing the law when they see these vehicles in transit and at posts.

Which means that law might as well not even exist.

I rarely see private security vehicles painted black and white. I have seen close combinations, but rarely if ever a straight up black car with white doors.

I even read an article recently that discussed the CHP asking the "Geek Squad" from Best Buy not to purchase black and white VW's. Too close to a cop car they said.

Link to story...

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/23/ge ... essed.html

I said that having a black and white vehicle is not a crime.

You quoted a statute and said it was. No mention of black and white, nor any specific color in said statute. Just that one solid color is an exception.

Having one solid color as an exception would mean nothing in Kern County, where their SO cars look like this:



And then we have just one example of our local guards putting a 7-tipped star shield on their cars



... which is a vertical flip and a ring around from being the same shape as SDSO.



But because the rest of it is a solid color like Kern Co. Sheriff, it gets a pass, and Geek Squad doesn't with no historically police insignia nor even a typical police car shape? Give me a break.

Best Buy should have fought it in court and presented the numerous security companies with historical police insignia and cop car accessories as ACTUAL violations of the legislative intent. Not to mention laws must be narrowly tailored and not be enforced simply because of WORDS THAT DO NOT EXIST like black and white.

I just provided the text of the law. Whether people choose to believe it, or in what way they interpret it, is their business.

Maybe the CHP will start enforcing this law with all the other "Geek Squads" out there.

You proved yourself wrong. The text of the law did not include what you said it included. Black and white. Black and white.

What about blue and white?Oh I had a question too does anyone know the freqs of the national public safety?

Mike

It's been confirmed already the other month for the National Public Safety freqs. by another member. They are on the 800Mhz LTR system.
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