REGULATION WATCH : Singing the Blues

Wouldn’t you know that Laguna Beach--that easy-going coastal city that has its own way of doing almost everything--would have a kinder, gentler version of police motorcycles? Instead of black-and-whites, it has powder-blue-and-whites.

The color scheme is pretty, all right, but at least one city traffic commissioner has agreed with a defense lawyer in a speeding case that the city should meet state requirements all the same.

The commissioner, Matt Flynn, threw out a ticket for exceeding the limit by 20 miles an hour, saying that state law requires police motorcycles to be either all white or black and white.

The law apparently is designed to let motorists know that they are being stopped by a police officer and not just anybody--something that most of us figure out as soon as the flashing red lights go on.

Police Chief Neil J. Purcell said the city got permission from a California Highway Patrol commissioner in Sacramento in the early 1980s to have the blue-and-white combination on its police motorcycles, which are used primarily for traffic enforcement. Purcell has asked the presiding judge of Laguna Niguel Municipal Court for a clarification, and the case in question may be appealed. No more tickets will be dismissed over the color scheme until the matter is resolved.

Nevertheless, news of Flynn’s decision is getting around and the city is bracing for more attempts to use this colorful technicality. It’s a good lesson for go-it-alone Laguna Beach that sometimes conformity has its up side.