The concept of local polaritons is used to describe optical properties of mixed crystals in the frequency region of their restrahlen band. It is shown that this concept allows for a physically transparent explanation of the presence of weak features in the spectra of so called one-mode crystals, and for one-two mode behavior. The previous models were able to explain these features only with the use of many fitting parameters. We show that under certain conditions new impurity-induced polariton modes may arise within the restrahlen of the host crystals, and study their dispersion laws and density of states. Particularly, we find that the group velocity of these excitations is proportional to the concentration of the impurities and can be thousands of times smaller then the speed of light in vacuum. * Submitted to PRB To explain different types of behavior in mixed polar crystals, a number of theoretical models have been proposed. In the IR experiments, modes with wave numbers q ∼ 0 are excited. The Random Element Isodispacement model (REI) 17,18 takes advantage of this fact, assuming that the sublattices vibrate in phase with q = 0. With some modifications 3 after including the local field, and assuming a dependence of the force constants upon the composition, the modified REI model (MREI) was successfully used to fit two-mode crystals but encountered some problems in the one-mode materials. The fine structure of some mixed crystals was reproduced along the lines of REI by means of a considerable increase in the number of fitting parameters (cluster model 18 ). A different approach made use of the Green's function formalism in order to treat vibrations in the mixed crystals; averaging over disorder was performed either in a simple virtual crystal approximation (VCA) or with the use of the much more elaborate coherent potential approximation 19 (CPA). Interaction with the electromagnetic field in these approaches was included after the averaging procedure was performed. The mean field approximation treats the crystal as if it has atoms of the same sort with some average properties. It reproduces well the one-mode behavior, but could not possibly explain the two-mode systems. CPA combined with an electrostatic treatment of the electric field was used to fit a broader range of experimental data (see, for instance, Ref. 20).An important theoretical problem many researchers have focused upon is to find a simple criterion for different mode behavior, based upon dynamical properties of the crystals. Lucovsky 9 originally considered the significance of whether the original absorption bands overlap or not, which turned out to be a rather rough criterion. Harada and Narita 10 proposed a criterion based on relations between MREI constants (see also review papers in Refs. 1,2). It turned out that one-mode and two-mode crystals can be described using quite simple models with only a few fitting parameter, such as VCA and MREI, respectively. Lucovsky et al. in Ref. 9 made an attempt to establish a connection between the behavior...