Concerns Move From Candy To Costumes This Halloween

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- From rack to rack in search of the perfect costume, it's that time of year kids get to morph into their favorite super heroes.

"I love that the Flash can go really fast and that the super Hulk has super strength," said 11-year-old Logan Atlee.

Some costumes look just like the real thing including police uniforms and badges that can be bought in store or online.  It's something Officer Matthew McPhail says is concerning for them, but perfectly legal.

"We would encourage you to not make commands or issue orders to people or treat other people as if you are an officer," said Matthew McPhail with Sacramento Police.

If you do that, you'll be charged with impersonating a police officer. If you have a toy gun, it must have a colorful tip.

"It's supposed to have obvious markings on it that would make it distinguishable as a toy as opposed to a legitimate fire arm," said McPhail.

Goodwill sells some great costumes, but they say not the real deal.

"We never sell anything that has official insignia or badges on it," said Luke Miller with Goodwill Communication.

They're also not selling clown costumes this year.

"We're trying to keep away from putting people in costumes that may get them in trouble or perceived badly in the community," said Miller.

Even 11-year-old Logan Atlee knows clowns are off-limits.

"There's been a lot of talk about them threatening and terrorizing schools and stuff," said Atlee.

His mother, Rasheral Despain, says times are changing and therefore so are the Halloween house rules.

"Before we were scared about something happening to the candy, now we're scared about the trick or treating out there being a part of it," said Despain.

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