Is the civilian use of blue lights and sirens legal?

Nope, at least not in my state (Oregon). About 13 years ago, my best friend was dating someone who had put those glowing lights under his car to light up the pavement under the car. A group of us went out somewhere that same night and we got pulled over about 15 minutes later because the lights were blue.

No, it’s a pretty serious violation. If you notice most movies will not even use blue lights on the police cars.

I have a flashing white light on the front of my bicycle, and a flashing red on the back.

It’s normal for bicycles in the US. Never for automobiles.

@ragingloli I think flashing lights are not allowed on bikes in the EU, is that correct?

White is A-ok on cars. Blue is not even ok on bicycles.

@jaytkay in the uk cyclists are only supposed to have flashing lights if it’s attached to your body not the bike.

In Connecticut blue lights can only be used by volunteer fire department members on the way to an emergency call. Even police and ambulances cannot use any blue lights.

@Tropical_Willie Interesting. So where you are, blue is only designated for volunteer firefighters? It’s not legal in Oregon to use blue or red, because it’s designated for emergency vehicles only (police, fire, ambulance). What colors do your police and ambulance vehicles use then?

I’m not in Connecticut currently, but yellow, red and white could be used by ambulance or police. Currently in North Carolina (where I’m now living) police can all kinds of light colors.

Here is the State by state colors.

In general, blue lights are reserved solely for emergency personnel if they are allowed at all. Most places restrict them further to “police use only”. Being from NH, I’m used to seeing red lights on volunteer firefighters responding to a call.

Ecto-1 is a special case though. It could be argued that they are actually a non-volunteer police special unit, at least for purposes of what lights/sirens are allowed. Their job is not so much to contain a danger like the Fire department, nor deal with casualties like an ambulance. (Those would get them red or red/white.) Their job is to stop a “crime” in progress, detain the perp, and take them to a holding facility. The time-sensitive nature of their work entitles them to have sirens in addition to lights in order to get through traffic faster, but the details of their job make blue a more appropriate colour.

Of course, it being Hollywood, one can assume that they made that argument off-camera, got the appropriate authorization easily and glossed over it with a handwave for the sake of getting the movie back to flashy special effects and one-liners. In reality, many places would restrict them to amber lights if they allowed any at all.

@Tropical_Willie Ah, okay. Interesting. Here, ambulances are red, white and amber, and fire and police are blue and red.

I’ve never seen red on a police car or blue on anything except a police car… and Ecto-1.

@jerv Here and here just so you can see. I never knew that there were so many variations before this question was asked.

@DrasticDreamer I’ve never been to Oregon.

@jerv Just wanted to show you since you said you’d never seen it. I’m still fascinated that there are so many variations in general.

In Ohio, Blue lights on the lightbar are strictly limited to police officers, specifically highway patrol. Red and Blue for Sheriff and Local PD’s . Red for Fire departments, and Green for…uh… well, I know you aren’t supposed to have green either.

@majorrich A lot of places reserve green for security forces.