Overview
- Hamburg has begun a pilot that fits patrol cars with a continuously lit, lower-intensity blue presence light to make officers and vehicles more visible and boost people’s sense of safety.
- Sachsen-Anhalt and Sachsen have announced they will not adopt the permanent presence light now and Baden-Württemberg and Nordrhein-Westfalen reached the same view earlier.
- The presence light is not an emergency signal: it runs steadily at about 30 percent brightness and does not require drivers to yield the way flashing blue lights and sirens do.
- State interior ministries cited the need for technical and visual uniformity across police fleets and warned that constant blue lighting could weaken the warning effect of traditional flashing lights.
- Officials say they will monitor Hamburg’s trial and exchange findings with other Länder, while noting the device follows practices already used in countries such as France, Spain and the United States.