SAGINAW, MI -- The Saginaw County Sheriff Department's fleet of police vehicles will soon have an old-fashioned look, though the plan takes advantage of newer light technology.

Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel plans to outfit the entire 32-car fleet with markings and lights that will remind many of a sheriff's car from the distant past.

There are practical reasons for the change, Federspiel said.

When the department transitioned to a fleet made up primarily of Dodge Chargers, he said, several deputies expressed concerns about a lack of visibility, especially with "slick top" patrol cars that have no lights on the roof.

Those vehicles, which have no lights mounted on the roof, did not provide true 360-degree visibility of emergency lights, he said. There also were concerns about bright, LED-powered light bars atop other patrol cars and the potential hazard they could pose to passing motorists.

In response, the sheriff recently used surplus millage funds to outfit about eight cars in his fleet with rotating, halogen-powered "red and blue bubble" beacon-style lights and a traditional black-and-white paint and decal scheme that features large sheriff stars on the cruiser doors.

Federspiel said he wants his patrol cars to be obvious when seen by the public.

"We're here, not to hide on you, sneak up and catch you doing something wrong. We're here to protect you. We're here to help you. We want you to know we're here and we want to deter crime," he said.

In the months since the first beacons were installed, though, some issues were identified with the new light system.

The halogen lights are not bright enough during daytime hours, he said, and the rotation mechanism inside proved to be finicky during colder months. So the department is trying a different approach.

Federspiel plans to draw $70,000 from his drug forfeiture funds and convert his entire fleet to LED-powered lights that look similar to the halogen-powered beacons, but are not expected to have the same problems.

See the new light system and how it compares to the halogen lights, LED light bars and slick-top system in the video below:

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The Saginaw County Courts and Public Safety on April 5 signed off on Federspiel's request to add the $70,000 expenditure to his budget. That recommendation will go to the full Board of Commissioners for its consideration on April 19.

"In order to provide the best safety for the deputies and in order to provide the best safety for the public, I'm asking for this money so we can complete our whole fleet with the red and blue beacons that are LED inside," Federspiel said. "They're sealed, so we won't have any moving parts. So we won't have the issues we had with some of the other ones."

The lights are much brighter than the halogens in the daytime, he said, and a photocell connected to the system automatically reduces their power to 50 percent at night to eliminate concerns that the LEDs could distract passing motorists.

"The worst thing we can have is to be driving down the road and be blinded by the emergency lights that are supposed to protect our deputies," Federspiel said.

In addition to new light systems for all 32 vehicles, the funds also will cover three new police radios and replacement speakers for the majority of the fleet.

"The speakers we had were 20 years old," Federspiel said. "Some of them sounded like the voice was coming from underwater."

The new LED beacon-style lights are not as cheap as the halogen lights, which cost about $100 apiece. Federspiel said they are still less expensive than the LED-powered light bar systems, which cost $1,500 each.

The money for the retrofitting is drawn from the sheriff's drug forfeiture fund, which the sheriff said currently contains about $120,000.

"It's drug forfeiture money, not taxpayer money," he said.

Federspiel said the department's fleet currently has vehicles with LED-powered light bars, some with the slick-top design and some with the halogen-powered beacons. The proposal will eliminate those inconsistencies, he said.

"We want to have a uniform fleet," Federspiel said.

Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

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