Lawrence police Sgt. Bill Cory discusses the department's new patrol vehicle. The low-profile car does not have a light bar on top and has reflective police decals on the side doors that are plainly visible only when reflecting light.

There’s a new police cruiser on the streets of Lawrence that’s a little different from the others.

The bright white patrol car doesn’t have a light bar on top and it’s missing the traditional blue graphics seen on the city’s 42 other marked police cars.

Instead, the graphics are a different color that’s difficult to see from a distance and the lights are contained inside the car’s front and back windshields.

While habitual speeders might frown upon the new incognito vehicle, Lawrence police say the low-profile patrol car should help officers enforce traffic laws.

“It helps them kind of blend in with their surroundings a little bit,” said Lawrence police Sgt. Bill Cory. “Everybody knows that sometimes when a marked patrol car’s around, with lights on it, people are on their best behavior.”

The new graphics are also highly reflective at night, when headlights and street lights shine on them, which will make officers and the public safer during traffic stops, Cory said. In the past, officers have been hit even with the lights on their police car activated.

Lawrence’s newest police car was put into service last week, Cory said, and the police department anticipates introducing five more of the low-profile cars during the next three years.

“When we bring a new car in that’s a traffic car, we’ll put these graphics on,” he said. “But we’re not just going to run out and change them all over right now, because that would be cost-prohibitive.”

The 2008 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor was purchased for $21,783 and the equipment for the car cost less than $1,000. Most of the equipment is from an older car that was removed from service.

Cory said the agency wants the public to be aware of the new look so they won’t be taken off guard if they see one of the cars.

“It still says ‘Police,’ and it’s still a normal patrol vehicle,” he said.

The low-profile cars are equipped to handle the same duties as the higher-profile patrol cars, though officers are being taught to use special caution when driving them in emergency mode because there’s no light bar on top, Cory said.

Several other northeast Kansas law enforcement agencies have similar semi-anonymous police cars, including the Topeka Police Department, which said it currently has six cars with low-profile gray decals.

Cory said Lawrence police are giving the new look a try and not necessarily trying to be sneaky or tricky. He said as long as drivers follow the rules of the road, they should have no reason to be concerned.

“No matter what type of patrol vehicles we put on the street, they need to abide by the traffic laws,” Cory said. “They’re there for a reason; they’re there to help prevent injury and accidents, and to keep people safe.”