Emergency Vehicles - Reflective vs. Non-Reflective Lettering

[WILLIAMS]

Hi, does anyone have official guidance or information regarding requirements on police vehicle markings? I found guidelines for fire vehicles and ambulances but no such guidance for law enforcement vehicles. Specifically, I am working with a department that wants to use non-reflective for the majority of the design (including the word "POLICE", department name, etc.) and use reflective only for a small portion (stripe and just outline around the word "POLICE"). I feel the entire design should be reflective for visibility and safety but find no supporting guidelines suggesting that. Thanks in advance!

 

[DL Signs]

Most local law enforcement agencies have no set guidelines for graphics on their vehicles, you just design & do them to the specs they give you.

 

[ikarasu]

Yeah, there is no required specs.


It's why you always see mini vans pulling people over on the highway - they can have ghost cars or whatever they like.

The latest trend for the ones we do is black reflective (bareilly reflects!) On black. Vehicles so they're bareilly noticeable, but still stick out when their lights go on.

 

[WILLIAMS]

Most local law enforcement agencies have no set guidelines for graphics on their vehicles, you just design & do them to the specs they give you.

Thanks. I was thinking FEMA, NHTSA, OSHA, etc. would have design/spec minimums or best practices; similar to NEPA requiring fire/ems vehicles with 4" wide reflective striping on sides and a chevron pattern occupying 50% of the rear.

 

[WILLIAMS]

Yeah, there is no required specs.


It's why you always see mini vans pulling people over on the highway - they can have ghost cars or whatever they like.

The latest trend for the ones we do is black reflective (bareilly reflects!) On black. Vehicles so they're bareilly noticeable, but still stick out when their lights go on.

Thanks. I feel even the ghost graphics are still reflective; white reflective on a white vehicle/black reflective on a black vehicle.

 

[DL Signs]

Fire & EMS are specific use safety/ emergency vehicles with specific standards. All a police vehicle needs by law to be legit is lights and a siren, they don't have to have any identifiers, and even the lights can be hidden when they're not in use. They can even use any year, make, model car that's road legal. Some departments standardize marked vehicles, like the black & whites, some don't, it's all up to the department what they do to mark, or not mark each vehicle. There are departments in my area where no two marked cars have the same graphics, and some look nothing like what you'd expect a cop car to look like. They're like any other customer wanting vehicle graphics, give em' what they want, get paid, and if they're happy with your work, and you're within their budget, you'll get more, and get paid again.

 

[WILLIAMS]

Fire & EMS are specific use safety/ emergency vehicles with specific standards. All a police vehicle needs by law to be legit is lights and a siren, they don't have to have any identifiers, and even the lights can be hidden when they're not in use. They can even use any year, make, model car that's road legal. Some departments standardize marked vehicles, like the black & whites, some don't, it's all up to the department what they do to mark, or not mark each vehicle. There are departments in my area where no two marked cars have the same graphics, and some look nothing like what you'd expect a cop car to look like. They're like any other customer wanting vehicle graphics, give em' what they want, get paid, and if they're happy with your work, and you're within their budget, you'll get more, and get paid again.

Thank you! I appreciate the response and insight!

 

[SightLine]

Yep... no general requirements for police. We do hundreds of police vehicles a years for a couple of dozen different departments and the variety of what they want is all over. Some reflective, some not, some ghost designs, some spend more for 3M 680 because they actually care enough to remove the decals nicely when it is time to sell the vehicle (most places dont care and will just ruin the paint with razor blades or just spray paint over the markings). By the way, printing reflective black is pretty much pointless as it will not reflect well at all, where they want larger black reflective striping use manufactured black reflective - that actually reflects.