Barrie police cruisers are changing colour and it’s causing some concerns.
Mayor Jeff Lehman says he’s received complaints that the new dark blue cruisers are harder to see.
“There seems to be a matter of opinion as to whether this is new and better or new and worse,” he says. “Does that actually help or hurt crime prevention?”
Barrie police Chief Kimberley Greenwood says the colour change is party of a police rebranding effort and doesn’t cost any additional money.
“As the chief I have the ability to make that decision and I made that decision,” she says. “We have state-of-the-art lighting systems, we have a siren. If we are responding to an emergency call for service our vehicles are visible.”
Barrie police have a total of 114 service vehicles. The chief isn't committing to changing all of those to blue.
Currently there are seven blue cruisers on the road and the chief says as the old white ones need to be replaced, they will switched with the blue.
“I look at the colour that we have chosen and that colour represents trust, dignity and intelligence. So that's something we're very proud of.”
