Emergency Vehicle Strobe Lights: A Legal Question

I have a question that hopefully a CPF member may be able to answer.

I recently bought a Whelen Dashmaster II dual strobe light over in CPF Marketplace. This is a light that can be used for emergency vehicles (police, fire). I have no business with this if I was planning on using it for its normal purpose. I'm certain I'd be breaking the law if this was in my car and I turned it on.

Anyway, the purpose for which I bought it is to use it as stage lighting (special effects) for my band. It came with amber lenses. I wanted to find blue and red to replace the amber.

I went on eBay looking for red and blue lenses that will fit it. Then I discovered that red, blue and green lenses that are for emergency vehicle lights are a prohibited item on eBay. EBay is afraid you are going to use them to impersonate a police officer.

All this has now got me wondering if my intended use (special effects stage lighting) is legal. Does anyone know? I would only use it indoors in conjunction with performances by my band. I will never use it in a vehicle.

Can you get clear lenses? Then you could buy the colored film in whatever color you want. Probly won't find blue or red lenses.

RalphRussell said:

All this has now got me wondering if my intended use (special effects stage lighting) is legal. Does anyone know? I would only use it indoors in conjunction with performances by my band. I will never use it in a vehicle.

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All those rules about light colors and placement apply to vehicles that are out on public roads. On private property you can light your vehicle any way you like. When you are doing a show inside a building you can do any kind of lighting you can think of, it's none of Joe Laws business.

eBay rules apply to eBay, not the whole world. These people might sell you covers, can't get the page to load so I'm not sure:

www.strobesnmore.com/whelen-dual-dashmiser-strobe.html

MarNav1 said:

Can you get clear lenses? Then you could buy the colored film in whatever color you want. Probly won't find blue or red lenses.

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I actually did locate a pair of red ones. There are a few lenses for sale here and there on eBay. I bought them before I discovered they were prohibited. I don't think everyone knows they're prohibited. Sooner or later I'll find a blue one too.

My question is whether its legal to use a police red/blue strobe light for stage lighting.

I have other strobe lights that are designed as stage lighting. Among other things, we use those to simulate lightning. I don't really have a specific use in mind for the emergency police strobes, but I can think of an example. We don't do the song but I think its called "Bad Boys". The tag line is "whatcha' gonna' do when they come for you, bad boys, bad boys". The red/blue strobe would fit right in.

Police lights have been used in Stage lighting in Clubs and Discos for ages. As long as your aren't on public roads running Wig-Wags and strobes rolling past traffic or pulling people over you're cool. Many guys have strobes in their hotrods and use them at car shows and meets. The rule is simple you won't see strobes in your mirrors as long as noone sees yours in theirs.

Which lenses are you looking for? The ones that are about 2in x 3in with the screws on the ends in the center?

Vinniec5 said:

Police lights have been used in Stage lighting in Clubs and Discos for ages. As long as your aren't on public roads running Wig-Wags and strobes rolling past traffic or pulling people over you're cool. Many guys have strobes in their hotrods and use them at car shows and meets. The rule is simple you won't see strobes in your mirrors as long as noone sees yours in theirs.

Which lenses are you looking for? The ones that are about 2in x 3in with the screws on the ends in the center?

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It never occurred to me that they would be illlegal for stage lighting until I found they were prohibited on eBay.

Red lenses are on the way. I need one or two blue ones. They are 3x4 with a screw in each corner. The exact Whelen part number is 68-1180646-20. The last two digits represent the color. I'm not sure but my research suggests that 68-1180646-2SJ may be the same part or compatible.

The strobe is from about 1995 so it has the old style xenon flash tubes, not LED's.

I'd like to thank everyone who posted. I think my question in answered.

While I'm not a lawyer, I do know that intent plays a huge part in this type of scenario. If you only use the lights on stage, for your band performances, then there's clearly no intent to impersonate a police officer.

They are just prohibited at ebay because they know the clients.
In the sense of : "MUCH more likely to be 16 year old wanting to pimp their car than stage technicians"

Have you tried contacting Whelen?

I bet you could get lenses from www.galls.com.

Buy somewhere else. There is no "police" strobe lighting, only strobe lighting that gets used by the police.

I'd be surprised if you couldn't use color gels to get the effect you want.

I think this is the correct lens assy your looking for but I would email them and check to be sure http://www.strobesnmore.com/whelen-600-series-lense.html

I have the DashmiserII strobe with internal power supply I believe yours is external? I know Leds are the newest but the strobes still give Leds a run for their money

Far too many cops (and prosecutors and judges) make up the law as they go. Whether it's legal or not, they may harass you about the lights. Remember, you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride. The law also varies from state to state.

However, if they don't see it, they can't give you trouble about it. You aren't planning to mount it on the vehicle are you? When you're transporting it, be sure it's locked up in some sort of case such that it's not visible in the vehicle.

It wouldn't really surprise me if some LE joker harassed you over having blue or red strobes in stage lighting, but it's probably not that likely, especially if it's inside, not mounted on a vehicle, etc.

If your using it for stage lighting then technically its just another color. The cops dont have a trademark on red and blue lights? They just arent permitted on roadways for safety reasons. And someone also mentioned galls earlier, they are a great resource and my friend who is a fireman uses them all the time.

gsxrac said:

If your using it for stage lighting then technically its just another color. The cops dont have a trademark on red and blue lights? They just arent permitted on roadways for safety reasons. And someone also mentioned galls earlier, they are a great resource and my friend who is a fireman uses them all the time.

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Galls is good, but lots of suppliers limit certain items to LE only. Check Galls and see.