Police Chief Mark Saunders says switching the colour of Toronto’s familiar white, red and blue police cars to grey was a spontaneous decision, and one he is allowed to make as the city’s top cop.

“There was just a moment when I did it, there was no deep thought in it,” Saunders told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Monday.

“The fleet is old and we’re in the process of changing and someone said ‘do you want it to be the same or do you want it to look different and I said ‘let’s make it look different.”

At its last meeting, the Toronto police civilian oversight board asked Saunders to explain the colour change because board members had not been consulted.

“We are making a major design change, and we did never discuss it,” Councillor Shelley Carroll said last Thursday.

“I'm sure at one point when we went from yellow to red, white and blue there was probably a conversation.”

The board told Saunders to report back on the service’s plans for its cars.

Last month, the Toronto Police Service began replacing its familiar white Ford Crown Victoria vehicles with Ford Interceptors painted in a dark shade of grey. “Police” is printed in highly reflective decals on all four sides.

The cars are different from the service’s new “stealth” cars, which are also grey but the word “Police” and motto, “To Serve and Protect,” are barely visible beneath grey paint.

Toronto police cruisers changed from yellow to white 30 years ago, after the then Metro Police Commission decided tests by North American researchers showed that white “is safer and can be seen better,” the Star reported in 1986.

Amid considerable public debate, the commission — the precursor to today’s police civilian oversight board — decided to change from yellow to white, rejecting a staff report recommending the cruisers have blue and gold stripes, instead of blue and red.

“The Metro Police Commission is understood to have decided on the change in principle and will inspect cars in two new colo(u)r schemes at its . . . meeting,” the Star reported in a front page story in 1986.

On Monday, Saunders said he’s not sure if “there’s any reason why I have to consult with the board on changing the colour of the vehicles, but (that’s) something that we’ll be definitely looking into.”

Under the Police Services Act, which the province is currently reviewing, the duties of the chief include “overseeing its operation in accordance with the objectives, priorities and policies established by the board.”

He also defended the new grey colour in response to some criticism that the grey colour is not visible enough.

Saunders said the new vehicles are “highly visible,” with white fluorescent taping against the grey backdrop.

He acknowledged, however, that some people are confusing the grey patrol cars with the Stealth version used to detect whether motorists are texting while driving, for instance.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In 2007, a New York optometrist and leading expert on visibility and emergency safety, told the Star the best colour for emergency vehicles is “lime yellow,” which is why it’s used by fire departments all over the world.

A 2009 study by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency advocated the use of fluorescent colours — “especially fluorescent yellow-green and orange” for emergency vehicles, noting their “higher visibility during daylight hours.”

Read more about: