More on DRL

Anybody know if police cars are exempt from the Federal Daytime Running Lights legislation? And even if they are, why would it not be policy for them to always use their headlights anyway? It is demonstrably safer to drive with your lights on, day or night, and you'd think the police would want to set a good example. OK, not for surveillance work, or when running one of their futile speed trap fishing holes, like the one on John Street east of Bayview this morning, a downhill stretch past - well, past nothing, actually, but with a ridiculous 40 km/h speed limit. Must be like a mint there. But I digress. I get that maybe there are times when the police have to shut their lights off, although a bright white cruiser with the garish red and blue markings of the Metro force - well, that's never going to be a stealth car. And on regular patrol on the 401 this morning? Those lights should be on.

Comments

[John B]

Nice typing, Jim!

Could it be that their lighting systems are from the U.S., where they don't like DRLs and that circuitry is replaced with some of the police strobe stuff?

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi John B:

Yeah, that's what I get for trying to type a blog post on my iPhone. One finger at a time (WAY too old to do the thumb thing...), and I must have accidentally hit "Publish" when it clearly wasn't ready for Prime Time!

I did manage to recover and fix it, but not before you caught it in its, um, 'unedited' state.

I suspect police cars do indeed have the DRL disconnected, not necessarily because it is The American Way (the cars are all built in Ontario) but because they want to have the 'stealth' option.

Again though, on regular patrol, the operator should switch on his lights.

Jim Kenzie

[Brian]

As I said in a previous comment, I heard that cars must be *sold* with DRL in Canada, but there is nothing about disabling them. Haven't confirmed this, but for police it could also be standard issue since they might to run with all their lights off at night so as not to be detected.

[Jason]

I wouldn't be surprised if they are, police need to be able to turn them off a lot of the time to sneak up on people. I've seen Toronto police cars with full low beams, DRL's and no lights at all. There must be an exemption and it makes sense for them to have it. However, during normal patrols, they should have the proper type of lights on for the conditions.