Person held amid Pentagon security scare

ARLINGTON, Va. - Authorities are closing several major roads around the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., due to an ongoing investigation.

CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin reports Arlington County and the National Park Police have taken one person into custody who is suspected of planting suspicious devices around the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial.

It remains unclear whether the vehicle in question belongs to the person in custody, but all the roads around the Pentagon have been closed and traffic is at a standstill, says Martin.

Routes 27 and 110 around the Pentagon, all ramps to and from Interstate 395 near the Pentagon and eastbound Interstate 66 to Route 110 were all closed early Friday morning.

Arlington County police department spokesman Crystal Nosal says police are investigating a suspicious vehicle on Washington Boulevard.

Lt. Gregg Karl with the Arlington County Fire Department tells CBS affiliate WUSA that the county's bomb squad is investigating the vehicle. Lt. Karl would not give any details on what may have sparked the suspicion.

Metro says rail service has not been affected, but travelers should expect delays and detours on Metro buses.

Uses of Police Lightbar

Emergency lighting has evolved from the old style revolving dome lights to latest, energy efficient, LED lights, which are extensively used in emergency and safety vehicles all over the world. A Police Lightbar is a kind of emergency light which has multiple functions and many variations to help police personnel in their duties. Police lightbar contains a number of LED bulbs small in size, programmed together in a grid. The best feature of these light bars is that it can flash in different patterns and can be used for various occasions.

The Police Lightbar comes in both big and small sizes. The bigger lightbar is usually seen mounted on top of police cars and other security vehicles. The smaller ones are generally used when the need comes for an additional light source. They can be mounted either in the front or the back of the vehicle, or can be handheld to light up the dark spaces. Usually smaller police lightbar is light weight and has high powered LED bulbs which help them function very well even with the smaller size. They are waterproof, and the lens used for the outer cover is practically unbreakable. While bigger police lightbar is used in patrolling cars, smaller one can be used in unmarked cars and emergency response vehicles.

Vehicles belonging to emergency response volunteers are permitted to have emergency lights to use when needed. These vehicles cannot have a full fledged police lightbar complete with traffic advisor and switch controls. But they can have small police lightbar which can be mounted within minutes when needed. Emergency response volunteers will get sufficient training when it comes to operating the police lightbar, including switching the flash patterns and fixing the light bars when needed. Mini police lightbar comes in various colors, and the most common color is red and blue. This is exclusively used by police cars and in some cases ambulances. But amber colored light bars can be used in fire trucks, emergency towing trucks, construction vehicles and emergency response vehicles.

The police lightbar can be programmed either to be steady or to blink in various patterns. It can also blink with faster intervals or be slower to indicate slow moving traffic, in the case of towing trucks. Even snow removing vehicles, parking meter reading vehicles, and other service vehicles have police lightbar in different colors fixed on them, to alert public to keep a safe distance.

Ford Police Cars, 1932-1997

Outpost, magazine of the British South Africa Police

Prototype remote vehicle diagnostics for police cruisers

Men in blue

The Economist