Blue Lights on Hawaii Police Cars: Laws, Penalties, and Unmarked Stops

In Hawaii, blue lights on a vehicle are reserved for law enforcement. The Hawaii police blue lights law, found at HRS 291-31.5, makes it a crime for anyone else to operate, attach, display, or even possess a blue or blue-and-red lamp, reflector, or illumination device on a motor vehicle, motorcycle, moped, bicycle, or electric foot scooter. A violation carries up to a $1,000 fine, up to one year in jail, or both.¹

Who Can Legally Display Blue Lights

The statute recognizes only three categories of authorized vehicles:

County law enforcement vehicles authorized and approved by the chief of police in the county where the vehicle operates.
State Department of Law Enforcement vehicles authorized by the director of law enforcement, equipped with blue-and-red lights.
Department of Land and Natural Resources conservation enforcement vehicles authorized by the chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, also equipped with blue-and-red lights.

Everything else is off-limits. The one small carveout for civilians is factory-installed instrument illumination inside a dashboard or gauge cluster, which does not count as a violation even if the glow reads blue.¹

The statute does not spell out technical specifications for the lights themselves, such as minimum visibility distance or whether they flash or rotate. Those operational details sit inside individual department policies rather than the statute.

What a Civilian Faces for Putting Blue Lights on a Vehicle

HRS 291-31.5 sets a single penalty: a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both. The law does not sort offenders by motive. Someone who installs blue LEDs behind a grille purely for looks and someone who installs them to pull drivers over are charged under the same provision.¹

If an officer sees blue or blue-and-red equipment on a civilian vehicle, the driver can be cited on the spot and may be required to remove the device. The ban reaches possession, so lights sitting unused on a car still violate the statute.

When Blue Lights Cross Into Impersonation

Activating unauthorized lights to stop another driver, or otherwise acting as police, triggers charges beyond the equipment violation. Hawaii splits law enforcement impersonation into two tiers based on whether the person is armed.

HRS 710-1016.7 makes impersonating a law enforcement officer in the second degree a misdemeanor. A person commits it by pretending to be a law enforcement officer with intent to deceive. The penalty mirrors other misdemeanors, with up to one year of imprisonment.²

The charge rises to a class C felony under HRS 710-1016.6 when the impersonator is armed with a firearm. A class C felony in Hawaii carries a maximum prison term of five years.³⁴

Put together, a civilian who runs blue lights and conducts a fake traffic stop can face the equipment charge plus the impersonation charge, and the impersonation count becomes a felony if a firearm is involved.

Verifying a Stop by an Unmarked Vehicle

Hawaii does use unmarked and subsidized police vehicles, so a driver seeing blue lights in the mirror cannot always rely on the car’s appearance alone. If the vehicle lacks emergency lighting and a siren, it should not be conducting a pursuit at all. Kauai Police Department pursuit policy prohibits unmarked vehicles without emergency lights and a siren system from engaging in any pursuit driving, and subsidized or unmarked vehicles used in pursuits are required to have emergency lights visible from the front, rear, and sides, plus a working siren.⁵

If an unmarked vehicle signals you to stop, you are not required to pull over immediately into an unsafe spot. Slow down, turn on your hazard lights to acknowledge the signal, and continue to a well-lit, populated area before stopping. Once stopped, you can ask the officer for a name and badge number. Note the time, the location, and those identification details.

If something still feels wrong, call 911. Dispatchers can confirm whether a legitimate stop is underway at your location. A real officer will accept that verification; someone using unauthorized blue lights to impersonate police will usually leave once the call is made, and will then be looking at both the equipment charge and the impersonation charge if identified.