The NYPD started out with green patrol cars and navy blue uniform tops and bottoms with an NYPD patch on the right shoulder. In the 1970’s in an effort to appear less like a police ‘force’ and more like the guys you call when your television is acting up, they switched to powder blue patrol vehicles with white stripes, and powder blue shirts with the same navy blue pants.
This was designed as a ‘service’ oriented look and to make cops appear to be more friendly. It was an epic fail. In the 1990’s when Bill Bratton was starting his first stint as police commissioner, he changed the uniforms back to navy blue ( and added n NYPD patch on the left shoulder so that there was a patch on both sleeves of the uniform. The vehicles changed to a white color with blue stripes. The primary reason for this was that to be eligible to obtain federal funds and as a prerequisite to attain federal accreditation (and the funding that went with that designation) the vehicles had to be ‘primarily’ white.