Why do police drive with flashing lights on at night??

There could well be a very good reason.
Get wild and ask a cop.
Never hurts for expats to have mates in the police force.

The blue lights tell you to put down your cel phone or your can of beer.

To tell you they are there and get you to slow down, if they are going to pull you over they will use their siren and start riding your bumper. They use the lights during the day also

When I asked a local, I was met with a wide-eyed stare and "well, of course they do.  They better use them or people will be mad.  How else will we know where they are?"

Have not told Lexie about part of Puerto Rico yet

Each policeman should be able to speak English, but ...... Most outside of the metro area have very little practice so communications can be difficult, they mostly deal with locals. English speaking Only people are a small percent of the island, so you all need to learn Spanish to do well in the island. If you can get away with just English, then you are not really enjoying Puerto Rico, there is a whole island out there and people you have yet to experience

I downloaded an app that has 10000 words. I use it every morning. Plus I have a translator on my phone

Duolingo works good, but I highly recommend a course for your computer or phone called Flurnz, they have it in Amazon as a download or DVDs http://fluenz.com
My wife uses it and I listen and think it is accurate and very useful, you learn common conversations, and learn to read it, write it and speak it correctly.

Ahhh ok!  So if no siren I'm good.  Thanks!  😉

Basically every vehicle that is equipped with flashing light will have the lights flashing at all time. Even funeral home vans flash their purple lights.

Wait to you see the guys impersonating cops. Good times.

Karenqc wrote:

Wait to you see the guys impersonating cops. Good times.

Sirens... You don't even know if there was an accident or is some fool on a jeep with nothing better to do.
Specially on holidays, they really get intense with the noise.

But I trade that annoyance for crazy US cops, any day.
PR cops are way easier on people. Last time they killed someone was years ago, people were really pissed. Speed traps are almost non-existent. No news of multiple shootings of dogs, and there are dogs everywhere in PR. You can park almost anywhere, enjoy the moment, and not fear you'll get towed or ticketed.

Cops in PR are a little different, laws are selectively enforced. Until they sound the siren just slow down and ignore them. Like everyone else they want to have a good time. They do setup speed traps, but not as often. I seen them pull people over.
But yes every so often there are false cops. Hard to know the difference.

I have seen the police write many parking tickets in my town - and they are very expensive fines!  I cop told me the parking ticket was $150  - so I am careful where I park!

I actually asked my cousin who is in law school down here, and she said something about that was for "safety reasons".

Gary wrote:

Basically every vehicle that is equipped with flashing light will have the lights flashing at all time. Even funeral home vans flash their purple lights.

Hehe, let the funeral vehicle go by, don't want them late to the funeral. But then again the subject is not in a hurry. I know, bad joke.

Islandman wrote:

I actually asked my cousin who is in law school down here, and she said something about that was for "safety reasons".

Yeah I heard that, too. BS if you ask me.
In reality it's confusing and the effect is that when a police car needs to get somewhere fast nobody is impressed with their flashing lights and sirens