Sets of police emergency lights found in dumpster

ATLANTA - Police emergency lights removed from the top of cruisers have been discarded in a trash dumpster in northwest Atlanta.

The revelation that this has occurred is upsetting to police officers concerned those lights might wind up in the wrong hands.

The light bar, as it is called, is clear until the blue lights are actually activated. Placed among old street signs, tires and other debris are numerous sets of police emergency lights at the police maintenance yard on Howell Mill Road.

Vince Champion, director of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, says there is no telling where those lights might end up once the commercial dumpster is taken off of the public works facility.

The union official's concern is that law enforcement imposters have gotten hold of real or lookalike equipment and have stopped female motorists.

"If the lights are discarded, there is no inventory of what’s been placed in the dumpster," said Champion. "That raises real safety concerns".

The Atlanta Department of Public Works released a statement saying the way equipment is decommissioned and disposed of will be reevaluated.