Why do police cars have so many different sirens?

Police cruisers, ambulances and fire engines all use the same sirens, bought from the same suppliers.

Most sirens come with three or four tones, Wail, Yelp, Phaser, or Hi-Lo. There is also an air horn tone.The tones are meant to get attention and can be alternated to keep people from getting used to one tone. The tones themselves don't have any particular meaning.

Sometimes they sound a little different because of how they're mounted. Ambulances and fire engines mount them higher in the grill, cruisers mount them low in the bumper, some setups use one speaker, most use two.

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RE:

Why do police cars have so many different sirens?

Police cars, ambulances, and firetrucks each have lots of different sounding sirens.What do they all mean?

Sometimes the people in that city are used to the tone and don't notice it anymore because it becomes a natural sound to their ears. By changing the sound they become more aware of the emergency car passing by. In other countries they are still testing which is the best one so they play different siren noises to see what they react to the best. Don't worry, they are not trying to send you a message ;) newnewnewnewnewnewnewnew :D - cute

It's not so much for you as it is for the different departments to identify each other in emergency situations. Also different sounds are used for going through intersections. There are several codes that mean different things.

1: thank you for having the Combine Symbol as your picture :D

2: i think they are all state operated vehicles so they have their own laws and are each separate entities of each other. All are state funded so why wouldnt they have different sounds?

They mean: Get out of the way! FOO! LOL