Every year police officers are injured and killed during basic traffic stops simply because a driver was not paying attention and ran into them. Because of this, police cars will have emergency lighting installed in a variety of places on their vehicles. This is done to maximize their attention-getting effect and make sure that those they share the road with notice them and act appropriately. On most cars, lighting will include roof top light bars, dash and deck bars, police grill lights, front and rear flashers, and sometimes running lights on the sides of the car.

Police grill lights, however, serve multiple purposes. The standard red and blue lights, when activated, serve as a warning and notice to others on the road as to their presence in the area. When clear lights are installed in the grill, they work with the vehicles regular headlights to provide additional light to a dark area. This is becoming more popular on undercover police vehicles that need takedown lights. This is particularly beneficial when the police officer is stopping a vehicle at night on a road that has no streetlamps. That added light can help the officer get a better look at the overall situation and detect hidden dangers that they might not otherwise have seen in dimmer lighting.

Police grill lights come in a variety of styles. Halogen lights are incandescent lights made with a tungsten filament and halogen gas. These lights are pretty powerful, having the ability to operate at higher temperatures than regular gas lamps and still last a long time. Although they are small, they can produce quite a bit of light and are the most common types of lights used on cars. Xenon strobe lights are also made of gas. However, they are created to emit a flash of light at quick intervals. These are generally used as warning lights and usually only come in red, green, or yellow lights for the grill.

LED police grill lights are semiconductor lights that manipulate electron and photons to generate light. These types of lights are being used with increasing frequency because they last long, are energy efficient, vibration resistant, and durable. Their small size allows them to be packaged in shallower casings which in turn can make room for other things like a siren. One additional benefit to LED lights is that they can be programmed into a variety of flash patterns including ones that can be used to control traffic. Grill lights can provide additional safety and security to an otherwise dangerous job. No police car should be without them.