Police find innovative use for LED lighting

LED lighting is perfect for bicycles. The bulbs are bright and last for years. They also consume very little power. This means you don’t have to carry a cumbersome heavy battery pack.

You might wonder, though, why this should interest the police. The answer is simple. The police are putting aside many of their cars and motorbikes in favour of bicycles. And when they do so, they want bicycles with powerful, durable LED lighting.

Mountain bikes are the bicycles of choice for many police forces. The bikes are robust and long-lasting. And they cost a fraction of vehicles with combustion engines, are easy to maintain, and are a quick and versatile means of transport in the heavy traffic of towns and cities. And, as an added bonus, cycling rather than driving will help improve fitness levels of our police force!

Mountain bikes are also a far greener option than traditional police vehicles. The bikes don’t require any pollutants to make them work. Incidentally, neither does LED lighting.

But the compact size of mountain bikes can be a drawback. To be effective, a police mountain bike must capture people’s attention when necessary. A wayward motorist who sees nothing more than a police officer pedalling a bike behind his or her car is unlikely to pull over. And this is where LED lighting comes in.

Flashing police lights are a proven means of grabbing people’s attention. To fit conventional flashing lights on a mountain bike, though, is simply not possible. Traditional police cars and motorbikes have batteries to provide power to their sophisticated lighting systems. A bike with a similar system would be impractical. Fortunately, LED lighting is able to give police officers exactly what they need.

Today’s police mountain bikes have specially-designed LED lighting systems. The LED light bulbs for these have several advantages.

The LED light bulbs produce a bright beam. Other road users have no doubt about the presence of a police bicycle behind or in front of them.
LED lighting is visible from some distance away. It is far more effective than the bulbs on standard bicycle lamps.
LED lighting is versatile and resilient. The bulbs on police mountain bikes can flash consistently and reliably, without loss of brightness.
The LED light bulbs on police mountain bikes are low energy. They require a modest amount of watts to power them. Because of this, the batteries built into the fittings of the LED lighting system have a long life. Police officers can therefore rely on LED light bulbs throughout the day and night, and police forces save money on replacement batteries.

This innovative use of LED lighting is a good example of its flexibility and usefulness. LED technology is also helping the police make significant cost savings. It is enabling them to employ mountain bikes instead of expensive cars and motorbikes in situations where mobility is critical as well as being kinder to the environment.

In one sense, these mountain bikes and LED lamps hark back to the former days of bobbies and their bicycles. But the difference in approach is a world apart – all thanks to LED lighting.