Lights, Camera, Action!

[5pt0Joe]

Originally Posted by ImEvil1

If your friends want excitement, have them do a ride-along with a real police officer.

It's kind of funny that you say that... with the local officers, it is the complete other way around. They are all excited about the progress and are waiting for rides with everything mounted! They are picking straws for the parades too! Many stop by every-so-often when I'm working on it outside to check it out. Excitement is different for everyone!

Old for many, yes, but old for everyone, no!

[ImEvil1]

Originally Posted by 5pt0Joe

It's kind of funny that you say that... with the local officers, it is the complete other way around. They are all excited about the progress and are waiting for rides with everything mounted! They are picking straws for the parades too! Many stop by every-so-often when I'm working on it outside to check it out. Excitement is different for everyone!

Old for many, yes, but old for everyone, no!

I hope you didn't take what I said the wrong way. I am also excited for you, and your car looks great.

Playing with the siren, whether for attention or otherwise, while entering a show is seen by many as obnoxious. Obviously, when permission is granted in advance by local officials for parades/cruises it's different, but what gives you the right to play with your siren at the start of a car show? Or play with the lights in a public parking lot?

[jpargo]

Joe...car looks great!

[stubes]

Originally Posted by ImEvil1

Playing with the siren, whether for attention or otherwise, while entering a show is seen by many as obnoxious. Obviously, when permission is granted in advance by local officials for parades/cruises it's different, but what gives you the right to play with your siren at the start of a car show? Or play with the lights in a public parking lot?

I agree. i love taking my ssp to cruises shows etc, but have never turned on the siren or the lights while out for any reason. i hate bringing attention both positive or negative to myself.
I got all that out of my system way back when it was a job and drove the real thing. gets old real quick.

[NoDrama43]

Joe,

you said ......"It's kind of funny that you say that... with the local officers, it is the complete other way around. They are all excited about the progress and are waiting for rides with everything mounted! They are picking straws for the parades too! Many stop by every-so-often when I'm working on it outside to check it out. Excitement is different for everyone!

Old for many, yes, but old for everyone, no!

I don't know any police officers that would be the least bit "excited" to hear a siren coming from a police car. I know plenty of police officers and other civilians that ARE excited to see a completly restored, nice police mustang. Your car is nice and will draw attention WITHOUT you dicking with the siren for attention. The whole light show /siren thing when entering a show or loitering in a public parking lot is about drawing attention to yourself. "look at me" "check out my car". How can it be about anything else? If not then please explain the purpose. I think it is obvious to everyone that you derive pleasure from the thought of playing with the lights, hoping to get the stares. Please think about it before you do it as I believe, based on my conversations with civilian show attendees, that you will be considered a wanna be by doing it to excess. What you do at a show with your restored police mustang affects peoples opinions about us all. Amazingly when I attend emergency vehicle car shows and displays I seldom see this type of activity. I only see it out of a small minority of ssp mustang owners. I am sure this post will offend some but I am calling it how I see it. If you are asked to lead a parade or cruise then by all means light em up and give the people what they want. Nothing wrong with that at all.

The BEST way to draw attention to your car at a car show is to have it immaculately clean, restored correctly, and be knowledgable about the history of the car. Be open to answer questions, be courteous and friendly, and act like a professional. Just my opinon, gleaned from 20 years LE and 14 years of collecting and showing SSP mustangs.

[88stang]

Nice looking car you got there.

[EvocBruce]

Jim,

I have to agree with your post. At shows be prepared to answer questions, and listen to the dumb statements made by goobers who think any police car is driven by Barney Fife. Addig a siren to a car to make it an authentic restoration is okay. Playing with it in public when not necessary is juvenile, and a poor reflection on the police car collector hobby in general.

[BHPD356]

And just to throw one more thing in the mix Joe. Id like you to really sit down and think what the siren really means to some of us that are "real law enforcement" and then wonder why we think the way we do about playing with one.
To us it means, running hot to a shooting, fatal car crash, child drowning, domestic assault, man with a gun, jumper on a bridge, missing child, chasing a guy that just shot the clerk at the BP. and being across town and hearing a OFFICER DOWN on the radio. And escorting a fallen Officer to his final resting place
And one closest to my heart, chasing a guy on a bike and catching him and then he turns on you and runs you over on your bike and causing your career to be in jeopardy cause of your massive injuries.

So JOE ask your self, is playing with a siren really cool or is it disrespectful to those who earned the right to do it in public. Its not a toy, don't treat it as one.
A siren means bad things are happening to a human being to those in this field.
And I also agree with Jim. If its for a parade or cruise and its official I'm cool with it.
If I offended anyone with this post that's to bad. Leave the God Dam siren at home or don't hook it up if you cant be responsible rep of the hobby.

Thats 20 years or Law Enforcement. Comments welcome

[5pt0Joe]

Thanks to everyone for keeping the thread going and for the compliments and opinions. I just want to get some things clear here and please understand I'm not taking offense to any comment posted here.

Nowhere did I ever talk about playing with it in public. As a matter of fact, please note that pictures show the lights on. Also note that it is in my backyard! The local officers wanted to see it and hear it, so that is why I'm going to the police station to show it. Note, although a public place, IMO, it is the best and safest place to show them. Not mentioned, many people at work want to see it lit up. I have already told them that I will do it one day only and it will be in the rear of the building next to the loading dock... out of public site and mind. Noticed I said lit up, nothing about a siren. I told them I don't want to draw attention. I might even have some police there as well, as other "local officers" are in the surrounding towns. I live in the sticks of NH, so I consider "local" everything in a 30-mile radius!

One thing that I also failed to mention is that most of the shows I go to, I'm an active member in the club, hence why I stated that many of them are expecting to see the progress. Those clubs are ok with me coming in and turning on the siren for a quick moment. The only car shows I plan on not doing it even if asked to do so is at the NE Dragway shows, as people will be drag racing while the car show is going on.

To quote one of my previous posts... "You don't have to worry about me blasting the sirens and lighting up every place I go. I actually will not even use the siren in my own door yard, as I live right in the center of town." Not to offend anyone, but I think this was missed by a few. By no means do I want to be un-courteous or disrespectful to anyone, current/retired officer or civilian. That is where there appears to be a misunderstanding in the thread.

Although I feel like I'm getting hounded by certain remarks (once again, no offense taken by any), I think it is because there is a misunderstanding. I actually enjoy reading about everyone's thoughts on having and using a siren, as I think that it sparked an area that hasn't been entered in a while, especially the parts mentioned as to what it means in general and personally. I very strongly respect that. Please be assured, I mean no harm to the SSP community and please don't think that I'm going to hinder it irresponsibly by "dicking" around with a siren. I plan on being responsible about it, but it seems as though for some, no matter what one does, not everyone is going to approve of it just like everything else in life.

I really appreciate the posts regarding the "get ready to answer questions." As mentioned before, I think of car events as a social gathering! To go along with that, since redesigning my website, I now have matching business cards to hand out at shows to encourage people to keep in contact and keep up with the progress on both of my SSP's!

Once again, thanks for all the compliments on the TX DPS!

[NoDrama43]

5ptojoe

your first post said "LIGHTS... but no siren yet! (In the next few days! )

and then this "ACTION...
Putting it on the road tomorrow and the first "official" public appearance will be at the Mustang Car Club of New England members-only road trip to the Ford Memorabilia Museum (no lights or sirens), but the debut of the lights will be at the Memorial Day parades, but getting even more technical, my first "everything activated" car cruise will be the one at the end of the month in Framingham, MA! I can't wait!!!

Yes, I am more than a little excited right now... and I mean that in a non-sexual way

and then "So for the first few, I'll be chirping the siren a few times on entry, but after that, probably won't go on unless it is my first time at that car show location or I have a new co-pilot (I usually bring one of four or five different people to shows), making it exciting for them.
and this evening this was forwarded to me from an .org member as being a post made by yourself.

"I could care less about sirens... just wanted to know if we could run everything unexposed (no covers over the lights). Seems like my ".net" post is causing quite a stir regarding the siren, for no reason IMO!


first off lets just all agree you DID talk about using it in public. That is what created this thread in the first place. Obviously there is not any misunderstanding.

Ok so now lets get to the important part . There is no "stir" here, just legitimate opinions being voiced by our members. In addition, to clarify, your use of the .org member name DJP in your original post has no bearing on our opinions, as we would have the same opinions regarding the use of a siren regardless of who "alledgedly" got the stares. You obviously are not now, nor have you ever been LEO so we are not suprised that you don't understand, that is why we are trying to explain the reasons supporting our opinions. If you want to review the posts on .net (and apparently .org) you should be able to recognise that most everyone has the same general opinion regarding the use of the siren.

Seriously just show the car while being courteous to the moms with the little babies sleeping in the stroller. It is a simple concept that should be fairly easy to grasp. Sirens are not cool and not toys to play with.

Lets put this one to bed and get back to what we do best here........enjoying special service mustangs.