Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenC12
Remember when police drove mostly white cars and had lighter blue uniforms?
Now they drive black cars and dress like SWAT teams of the 1980s.
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The white police cruiser trend was a cost issue, not a way to make them look 'less menacing'. When buying large quantities of vehicles it turned out to be cheaper to simply order them in white (cheapest colour to paint cars, apparently) and apply a decal package. Traditionally, police cars were some darker colour with white doors and roof, usually "black and white". The custom painting would add extra cost to each vehicle.
Back before the white car thing happened in the 1990s (I think), RCMP cars were a purple/blue colour with white doors. Locally, Halifax Police where black and white, Dartmouth was dark blue and white, and Bedford had light blue and white. IIRC, Toronto City Police used to have yellow cars ("big yellow taxi").
A number of cities have gone back to the traditional "black and whites", but IIRC there are still many white vehicles patrolling the streets, including the RCMP.
Now if you are talking about unmarked vehicles, they have always been in a variety of colours to blend in with traffic (the reason for being unmarked). I'm sure there are some black vehicles among them.
I don't ever recall local police or RCMP wearing lighter uniforms, though I won't say it's not possible. Traditionally, though, police wanted their officers to have a bit of an intimidation factor, otherwise people may not listen to them or may feel that they could easily overpower them. IMHO, it's only been relatively recently that people have been concerned with police being too intimidating. It's a different world now.