Report vehicles that have banned blue lights in grilles

By June Watanabe

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 07, 2013

~~<p>Question: I live in Mililani and saw a “police car” (no markings) with its blue lights flashing inside the front grille but with no siren go through a red light. At first I thought nothing of it; then I remembered the Lisa Au case from 1982. Police cars at that time could have blue lights inside their car grille or on the dashboard. Then the Honolulu Police Department had a policy change so that only official police vehicles would have blue lights on top of their cars. People then would be able to identify official on-duty officers from bogus ones. Has that policy changed?</p>
<p>Answer: No, although blue lights are allowed on the top of unmarked HPD-subsidized vehicles.</p>
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Question: I live in Mililani and saw a “police car” (no markings) with its blue lights flashing inside the front grille but with no siren go through a red light. At first I thought nothing of it; then I remembered the Lisa Au case from 1982. Police cars at that time could have blue lights inside their car grille or on the dashboard. Then the Honolulu Police Department had a policy change so that only official police vehicles would have blue lights on top of their cars. People then would be able to identify official on-duty officers from bogus ones. Has that policy changed?