Police Motorcycles Fail Color Test in Laguna Beach : Law enforcement: An obscure state law says the vehicles must be black and white or white only. The Orange County community loses a traffic case because its cycles are blue and white.

Motorists challenging the color of authority have flooded the Police Department with calls, seeking dismissal of their traffic tickets because the city picked the wrong hues for its two-tone motorcycles.

“I’ve been in this business 31 years, and I’m not naive enough not to know I’m going to get a surprise once in a while,” Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. said. “But this comes as a surprise.”

The uproar revolves around an obscure state law that says police motorcycles used primarily by traffic officers must be painted either black and white or completely white, except for the trim.

For 10 years, Laguna Beach police officers have cruised on motorcycles painted white with blue trim and mostly blue gas tanks. Purcell said the motorcycles are clearly identifiable as police vehicles.

But Santa Ana attorney John R. Farris Jr. successfully argued in traffic court last month that a speeding ticket issued to his client should be thrown out because Laguna Beach motorcycles were not properly painted.

Traffic Commissioner Matt Flynn dismissed the ticket.

Flynn said Tuesday that his decision was based on the fact that, according to state law, using a wrongly painted motorcycle to issue traffic citations constitutes a “speed trap” and means the ticket must be dismissed.

Farris, one of two attorneys at a firm called Traffic Ticket Attorneys, said he searches for technicalities in the law. When he stumbled upon the statute regulating motorcycle colors, he said, “I go, ‘Ah ha.’ ”

Purcell has gone to the presiding judge at South Orange County Municipal Court for further clarification on the ruling.

“I could understand it if we were buying multicolored bikes,” the police chief said. But “there is no secret about it being a police motorcycle.”

Only one ticket has been dismissed so far, but Purcell said his department has been contacted by dozens of motorists who want their citations negated as well. “By the calls we got from citizens, including a couple attorneys, I can expect more,” he said.