department subsidized vehicles are made distinguishable as on duty police vehicles by the addition of a removable blue strobe beacon light strapped to the roof of the vehicle. this has prompted controversy within the local community as many residents and police officers would prefer to have dedicated and fully marked fleet of police vehicles. however, the county believes this would be a cost prohibitive expense to take on all at one time and believes it would be financially prudent to continue subsidizing the police officers with a stipend to pay for a police vehicle. many police officers view this as an additional incentive or benefit of the job. in a recent effort to promote higher visibility, the department increased the stipend by an additional $50/month if the vehicle the officer uses in their daily police use is white in color. police departments on the islands of kauai & maui who also at one time had a similar program for subsidizing police vehicles have mostly stopped using the subsidized program and their fleets are now fully marked. the kauai police dept. does have a few subsidized vehicles as of 2014.