Japan police force trials 2-pattern patrol car lights to help the hard of hearing

SAITAMA -- To help people who are hard of hearing tell the difference between a police car just on patrol and one zipping to an emergency, Saitama Prefectural Police are testing a new lights system with different patterns for each situation.

The move comes after hard of hearing citizens groups pointed out that members of their community find it difficult to tell the difference between a patrolling police car and one on a call as they may not be able to tell when the latter's siren is on, and asked for improvements. Japanese police cars and other emergency vehicles sometimes have their red lights on when on patrol, but no siren, which under Japan's traffic law is used solely for emergencies.

Saitama Prefectural Police deployed two patrol cars with the two-pattern red lights beginning in March this year, and added 10 more in April. The test run is scheduled to last until June, with the cars operating across the prefecture.

For patrols, the new red lights glow gently in two-second cycles, like fireflies. For emergencies, they blink at half-second intervals with the siren engaged, as in the past. Officers can switch between the two at the touch of a button.

The Japanese Federation of the Deaf has been submitting requests for the past decade to the National Police Agency and other authorities to have emergency vehicles display a visual indicator for emergency situations. The Saitama Association of the Deaf has submitted similar requests to the prefecture about twice.

According to association secretary-general Shinichi Ouchi, the hard of hearing have difficulty picking out sirens not just when they are walking, but when they are driving at about the same speed as an emergency vehicle.

He has experienced the latter problem himself. While driving, he looked in his mirror and noticed a police car with its red lights on behind him. He gave way, but the police car stopped at a red light and Ouchi realized that it was not on an emergency call. Many people with impaired hearing have had similar moments.

"If the vehicle in front of you moves out of the way (for a police car), then you can copy that. But if there's no one nearby, you can't judge the situation," said Ouchi. "I'd like to see a clear difference in the way (police car) lights flash when responding to an emergency."

Noting that the coronavirus pandemics had prevented any in-person input on the problem, Ouchi added, "We'd like to think together with prefectural officials, police and others with oversight of this issue with a view to realizing it while meeting with them and having them experience what it feels like to be in our shoes."

(Japanese original by Ayako Hiramoto, Saitama Bureau)