What are Ghost Graphics for Law Enforcement Vehicles?

It’s often important for people to notice law enforcement vehicles; hence the reflective graphics, flashing lights, and sirens, but not always. Sometimes they need to be unnoticeable if officers are to do their jobs well. Speed traps and surveillance assignments often work best when police cars blend into the background, and that’s where ghost graphics come in. But exactly what are ghost graphics for law enforcement vehicles?

Ghost graphics use vinyl materials that reflect very little light, making them harder to see in dark conditions.

Choosing the Right Ghost Graphics

Also called stealth graphics, these vinyl decals are often the same colors as the vehicle, but they reflect light differently. They should clearly identify the vehicle as law enforcement, yet be unobtrusive most of the time. But this type of graphic also reflects some angles of light very well, so vehicles become easy to see in headlights at closer distances.

How to Use Stealth Graphics

Think of stealth vehicles as hybrid versions of unmarked cruisers. They’re more difficult to spot than traditional law enforcement vehicles, yet they can be easily seen by anyone who is looking for an officer. They can be applied to any kind of vehicle, including SUVs and high-performance sports cars, and the vehicles can be any combination of colors.

Every department has its own look, and vinyl graphics work with all of them. You can have any kind of text, graphic elements, metallic badges, chevrons … anything you can imagine can be done.

Custom Ghost Graphics have a Nice Price Point

Ghost graphics are basically high-tech decals, so they’re much less expensive than paint. They also protect the paint beneath, which preserves the value of the vehicle. From a budgetary standpoint, vinyl wrap technology has come as a great relief to law enforcement agencies, both in terms of dramatically reduced costs and the time it takes to install them.

How to Design Ghost Graphics

Police and sheriff vehicles have a graphic style all their own. Every word and graphic on the vehicle has a purpose. The text has to be readable—okay, in the case of ghost wraps, maybe not quite so readable at first glance. The comparative size of graphics and text are important to maintain an official look. Most departments put their motto on the sides of all cruisers, and this can be done with ghost vinyl, as well. Your individual department probably also has regulations requiring the use of certain words and identification numbers in specific places on the vehicles. US Logo’s design department can help you put it all together, and if you’re not in the Wichita, Kansas, area, we can ship the vinyl to you for third-party installation.

Ghost Graphics Installation

After the design is finalized, installation usually takes 1-3 days (a huge advantage over custom paint, which can take weeks). If you’re only adding a few small graphics to each vehicle, it may be possible to do several installations per day.

Standard Components of Law Enforcement Vehicle Graphics

Whatever the specifics of your design, it will probably include the following:

• Badge, star, logo, or other law enforcement symbol
• Department motto
• Emergency phone number
• Department name/location
• The word “Sheriff” or “Police”
• Individual vehicle identification number
• Roof identification number

Even on stealth vehicles, the department badge and ID number are often made of non-stealth materials for easy identification.

Choosing the Right Vinyl Wrap Company

Experience is important for any kind of vehicle wrap; there’s a bit of an art to translating words and designs onto three dimensional vehicles, and there’s some serious craftsmanship involved in the installation. But wrapping law enforcement vehicles requires additional experience that not all wrap suppliers have. US Logo has designed graphics for both law enforcement agencies and private security companies, so we understand the format requirements and graphic standards followed by most organizations. And with US Logo’s 24,000ft2 facility we can handle all your fleet patrol vehicle needs. Give us a call (316) 264-1321 to discuss your ghost graphics needs; we’ll help you work through the process and make sure your vehicles look and function as they should.