Private vehicles using police flashing lights

While taking the law into one’s own hands has many real-life examples in the country, impersonating law officials, and that too not as a practical joke, is a new trend.

Easily available police car flashers installed on front grills or windshields are the new cool in the federal capital. The red and blue lights that many associate with a sense of security and in some cases hope can be bought for cheap to impersonate law enforcement vehicles.

Mushkoor Hussain, a young adult, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that he had installed the red and blue strobe lights out of passion. Hussain is not the only thrill-seeker, there are many in his age bracket in Islamabad that believe installing the lights give them a sense of power and the right of way.

The problem is exacerbated when the emergency lights, which are retailing online and in-person car parts stores, fall into the wrong hands. The city’s police reported arresting several vehicle-theft gangs who were using the security vehicle lights to avoid brushing with the law.

Raja Gultasib, who resides in the capital’s twin Rawalpindi, narrated an incident where his family members were stopped by individuals in what seemed like a police vehicle. “They were travelling on the Bara Kahu Road in Islamabad when a car with the emergency lights on indicated them to stop. They turned out to be robbers who deprived my relatives of cash, jewellery, and other valuables,” he informed.

Gultasib, like many, was not aware that the installation of such strobe lights was an offence and demanded that if it was indeed a crime then the police should do a better job at rooting it out. “Does law enforcement not see that such lights are being used to rob citizens in the name of the routine stop and search operations?” an irate Gultasib inquired.

“The law is clear that no one can install emergency lights in private vehicles and we have zero tolerance for those who do,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Traffic Islamabad, Sarfaraz Virk. He informed that the traffic division regularly stopped cars that were impersonating law enforcement vehicles and owners were fined anywhere between Rs 300 to 800 along with police confiscating the lights. However, the SSP conceded that the fine was minimal and should be increased.

Superintendent Police (SP) Islamabad Wahab Ahmed, while talking to The Express Tribune said that the police also takes immediate action against those who install police lights. “We register a case against the accused under Sections 419 and 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for cheating the police and send them to jail,” he informed.

However, Hussain, the resident of Islamabad, who had installed the strobe lights to feel a sense of authority apart from his passion, informed that no case had been registered against him. “I was lucky as they [traffic police] confiscated the lights and fined me Rs 500,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2021.