GA State Law on LED Scanners, Strobes, Halo's, and Side markers.

[SSmokinSS]

New mexico makes it perfectly clear. NO RED LIGHTS!!
I leave my red scanner on while parked at work everyday. I have left it on a few times driving around without a problem. I talked to an officer today that stopped by the store, and he said if it distracts, it's illeagal. He also said most cops won't bother. Just depends on if you are strobing or not. Scanning is iffy, as long as it's not red or blue.

66-3-835. Special restrictions on lamps.

B. No person shall drive or move, upon any highway, any vehicle or equipment with a lamp or device thereon displaying a red light visible from directly in front of the center f the vehicle or equipment. This section does not apply to any vehicle upon which a red light visible from the front is expressly authorized or required by the Motor Vehicle Code [66-1-1 NMSA 1978].

[YoungMulaBaby]

Would Aqua or Orange be considered illegal if I were to install grille lighting?
Orange resembles amber.
Aqua resembles blue..

[PEW-PROFESSIONAL]

Originally Posted by HubStep

And gah.... So I got stopped for red lights last night. After 8 months and dozens of deputies all being cool with me this guy stopped me and threatens to ticket me if I don't "have them off by tomorrow"..... Yeah... Fat chance.

So I wrote the sheriff:

Hello Sheriff Piper, my name is E**** *******.

First let me say as a forsyth resident that every interaction I've had with Forsyth County Sheriff's deputies has been wonderful. You've got a great team of guys and I really appreciate the work you all do.

The reason I am writing you today is about an interaction that occurred yesterday with one of your officers. My vehicle is equipped with an LED lighting system that produces a halo-like effect around the main headlights that I built myself. I've had sheriff's dept people approach me several times at Starbucks, Walmart, and other places over the past year and strike up conversation about them (where I got them, how I made them, complimenting them etc). Not once has there ever been any issue about them being red. I even had one roll past me while parked, give me the "thumbs up" and drive off.

It was always my understanding that any blue lights were obviously illegal, and that any flashing lights of any sort were illegal for similarly obvious reasons. These lights are not however, and no way shape or form resemble an emergency vehicle.

Your officer yesterday informed me that red, green, purple, or any other color for that matter was illegal and threatened to ticket me.

Surprised by this apparent change I spent a significant amount of time last night digging through the title 40 "motor vehicles and traffic" section of the Georgia code. I found 5 sections pertaining to lights on vehicles of non-standard nature:

{Title 40}

Section 40:
Subsections:
40-8-90
40-8-93
40-8-92
40-8-96
40-2-77

As a breakdown of what these cover:

40-8-90
-basically blue lights are a no-go for any reason. Etc etc. antique vehicles can request a permit. Ok. Adds a rider penalty for using them in commission of felony, gotcha.

40-8-93
"Nothing in 90 and 92 applies to parking, braking, or signal lights" ok

40-8-92
-(a) designation of emergency vehicles by commissioner, permit process,
****-(b) the commissioner shall authorize use of red or amber *flashing or revolving* lights. Police/fire don't need permits. Ok.
(c) more permit guidelines
****(d) flashing or revolving green lights are illegal. Doesn't apply to gov.

40-8-96
-violate 90 or 92 and you get a misdemeanor, to clarify 90 and 92 establish that vehicles possessing emergency lights (flashing red/amber/white or anything blue) require authorization.

40-2-77
-definition of what an antique/special interest vehicle is, permit process etc etc


So, while I apologize for sending you this huge email (as I'm sure you have other things you would rather be doing), I don't see anything in the Georgia State code prohibiting red, green, purple, or any other color for that matter as long as:
-no blue at all
-no flashing green
-no flashing red
-no flashing amber/white

Common sense would dictate any color flashing at all could be deemed unsafe. As such, I would never do that (even though that does not appear to be addressed).

I'd like to take a moment to clarify my intentions here. I understand why these rules exist, you don't want anyone impersonating an officer for a prank or malicious reason and I am absolutely fine with that. I'm writing you to see if there's anything I've missed, as from what I can find the law says nothing about solid (non-flashing) lights being uses for aesthetic/appearance purposes with the exception of blue.

What I have in no way, shape, or form could be interpreted nor mistaken for a police vehicle. I'm writing seeking clarification on what specific Georgia code doing so would violate.


Again thank you for your time and have a great rest of the day!


Sent from my iPhone

From what I heard is as long as the light are not flashing or revolving you're good.

What was the outcome of this email. I'm planning on adding a red grill illumination kit to mine, I'll only use them at cruse in's and car shows.

Also can you have a red tag light in Georgia?

[JHurt]

I have 2014 Camaro RS, have red LED turn signals up front, and not had a single problem. A while back, few years, I was told that red was okay, by a police officer. I live in Southeast Georgia

[Adam63impala]

Was just pulled over tonight In southeast GA saying my red license plate lights are illegal. . I said but they are the same color as brake lights . He let me go so I said okay , thanks ..

[davesnever]

Yup that's a no-no up north here too, only allowed to use white on the plate light. No red on the front anywhere and blue is illegal anywhere on the car. I have multi-colored led halos but legally I can only use white or amber however I have been getting away with a very light blue or light red without any hassles.I did however get pulled over once for having purple turned on which makes no sense at all. I think it all depends on the officer and their frame of mind, I know if I had been given a ticket for the purple I would of fought it as our laws don't mention colors except for the fact that red, blue and green(fire department volunteer) have their specific purposes. Oh and I do have grill illumination as well and have run pretty much any color you can think of without a hassle as it is indirect light and not that bright and is not flashing either. I think most officers won't bother with you as long as you are not drawing a lot of attention to yourself and stick to your local laws.