Around here, decorating the vehicles are usually the last thing to do after radios, cages, racks, lights and general outfitting is performed and until the vehicle is properly marked, it's not considered........ 'in service', so I guess the civilian is correct.
We just did a re-do this week on one, where the cruiser was in an accident, and while it still had some markings on it, it took close to 5 months to get it finished all total.
We do a lota municipality vehicles, ambulances, trucks, police enforcement, machinery and even some SWAT vehicles for all over southeast PA..... and nothing goes on the street for service, until the entire vehicle meets code.