Description
The patrol cars need to demonstrate common sense and respect for the local community when using the ridiculously bright strobe lights. There have been two instances in the past week I saw Princeton PD cars using the lights in a uneccesary and abusive way:
1) this past weekend in the middle of the night. Around the intersection of Clearview And Tee-Ar Place. It looked like a traffic stop. The patrol car was flashing horribly bright strobe lights. It was so bright that it was headache inducing, even with the blinds closed in every single room in my house. Is there not some sort of dimmer lights the cars can use for these kind of situations? . Clearview and Tee-Ar are quiet, residential streets with little traffic in the middle of the night. I see no reason the lights had to be on full blast. They woke up my family and gave me a headache.
2) Yesterday afternoon in front of JW MIddle school. I think the patrol car was there so the officer could be a crossing guard at Walunut and Guyot. Again, the strobe lights were on full blast. There was the usual, after school traffic jam, so I and other drivers had to put up with the horrible flashing while slowly moving north on Walunut. It was very uncomfortable and triggered yet another headache. For what it’s worth, I am not prone to headaches and am not particularly senstitive.
Obviously these lights are useful in emergency situations, but I don’t understand why they have to be used for routine traffic stops and in parked crossing guard vehicles. There must be a less bright option.
Please ask the officers who drive the patrol cars to exercise some common sense and courtesy.
4 Comments
Access Princeton (Verified Official)
CRI (Registered User)
Police-N.Sutter (Registered User)
RosemaryT (Registered User)
Of course different things need to be considered for each situation. If the police car was stopping someone on a busy highway, I would never question the use of super bright lights. Other motorists need to see the car very clearly so they don’t hit it. I get that.
But the lights used on Clearview/Tee-Ar were completely overkill. It was not an emergency. It was the middle of the night in a residential neighborhood. Every room in my house was lit up like a carnival, even with window coverings. They must be some kind of new lights. I don’t know the technical term. Strobe lights?? have never experienced anything like that before. Couldn’t the officer just use his headlights plus his hazard lights and maybe some of the fashioned blue lights on top?
As for the patrol car near JW, I don’t think it was in any danger of being hit, because it was parked on the grass. Again, I get that the officers might have wanted to make their presence known, but...
There must some less intense lighting option they could have used. Imagine being stuck in traffic with that strobe thing flashing in your eyes. It’s not like you can look away, because you have to keep your eyes on the road.