NYPD Cars Equipped with New LED Message Boards Updated July 14, 2010 5:52am

The message boards are mounted on the police car's traditional flashing light bar. (DNAinfo/Yepoka Yeebo)

By Yepoka Yeebo

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — The NYPD is equipping the roofs of police vehicles with blue LED boards that will flash messages visible from up to 200 feet away, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced Tuesday.

The new screens will flash and scroll 50 pre-programmed messages on everything from local traffic conditions to directives like the post-9/11 slogan, "If you see something, say something."

The NYPD will have some flexibility with the technology, the top cop said, explaining that if a child went missing a customized message about the incident could be programmed for display on the screen.

"So far, the officers who've seen them like them," said Kelly,

The commissioner said that the NYPD is the first agency in the country to use the new message boards, adding that the first ten cars featuring the new equipment were deployed on Tuesday. Eventually all 2,600 marked police vehicles will have the LED boards.