Fake Cops, Real Crimes
Flashing lights in your rearview mirror usually means one thing: Pull over, and get your license and registration ready. But some criminals count on that, using fake badges and realistic-looking police lights to mislead potential victims of acts they intend to carry out.
There's growing concern over crimes being committed by phony cops,
On a highway near San Francisco, he says, several women have been assaulted during fake traffic stops by phony cops.
Sacramento, Calif. Police Sgt. Terrell Marshall tells Gonzalez of one such incident in which an assailant "ended up taking (a female victim) back to his vehicle, where he ended up sexually assaulting her."
It's happened off the roads too, Gonzalez points out: When a Florida nursing student was stabbed to death in her Jacksonville apartment earlier this month, investigators suspected a man in uniform.
"We have reason to believe," says Rick Graham of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, "that access into her residence may have been gained through the impersonation of an officer."
In Fort Collins, Col., college student Lacey Miller disappeared in 2003.
A detective says, "Lacey was stopped by an individual posing as a police officer.
Miller's mother, Wendy Cohen, says Miller knew how to protect herself from criminals: "She had mace, and a cell phone. …She had everything she was supposed to have. She even pulled around the corner in front of our house."
Even in their front yard, Cohen says, there's only one reason Miller would have let her guard down: "Someone had to have tricked her to get out of the car."
Tricked, Gonzales, says, with a fake badge and flashing lights belonging to Jason Clausen, who later pleaded guilty to kidnapping, raping and murdering Miller.
Cohen was stunned to learn that, just weeks before her daughter's death, local deputies, responding to a report of a suspicious person in motel parking lot, found Clausen, and a lot more.
"He had a concealed weapons permit," Sheriff Jim Alderden of Larimer County, Col. tells Gonzales. "He was wearing a firearm. He had a, uh, set of handcuffs with him, a police-style flashlight. … And he did have red and blue lights on the visor of the car that could be used to pull somebody over."
Alderden says Clausen was also wearing a badge, but there was nothing deputies could do but let him go.
Miller couldn't believe impersonating a police officer wasn't a felony in Colorado: 'I was just dumbfounded. I said, 'I'm mortified that that's not a felony.' "
Possession of police-like flashers wasn't even a traffic misdemeanor," Alderden recalls. "It was a $15 ticket!"So, the sheriff and grieving mother teamed up to help pass Colorado's "Lacey's Law," which makes posing as an officer a felony, and possession of police lights a misdemeanor.
"I think," Cohen says, "she would be alive. She'd be in the garage, she would have come home, she wouldn't have stopped her car, and that's why I spent all that time and energy on trying to change that, so it wouldn't happen to someone else."
But, notes Gonzales, most states don't have a Lacy's Law, and no federal agency tracks these types of crimes.
Another growing concern is how easy it's become to buy police equipment and badges on the Internet and at stores across the county.
Name a department, from Alamagordo to Washington, D.C. and, says Gonzales, chances are a real or counterfeit badge can be bought online.
"It is very easy to get something that looks like a police badge, and that's what gets the person in the door," worries Mary Ann Viverette, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
The California Highway Patrol cautions that drivers need to use common sense and look for signs that they're dealing with a real officer.
Says CHP's Terry Liu, "The uniform and the badge: Most officers in uniform are wearing their nameplates as well, and obviously, the gun belt; that's usually a dead-giveaway who you're dealing with."
Even in unmarked cars, law enforcement lights are built in to the dash or grill, and are very distinctive "so you should be able to tell just by looking at it that it is a fixed, mounted lighting system," Liu says, not something someone Gerry rigged together to try to fool you."
To be safe, officers say, you can let them know you see them by waving, turning on interior lights, and putting on a turn signal. Then, look for a well-lit area, where there are other people, and pull over.
"If you're still not comfortable after being made contact with, then get on your cell phone and call 911," urges Liu.
Adds Alderden, "It is a burden on the system, but it's reasonable, I think, under those circumstances, to do that. You're not going to get in any trouble for taking that extra step to protect yourself."
Cohen hopes motorists heed the warnings, saying, "Most people aren't aware of the laws. Most people aren't aware of how vulnerable they are."
She also wants more states to follow Colorado's lead and stiffen the penalties for anyone who uses a badge as a cover for crime.
"It's every parent's worst nightmare," Cohen laments, "and so it just felt right to try to stop this from happening to someone else's family."
Cohen also hopes for a national version of Lacy's Law to crack down on police impersonators.
Also, companies such as eBay are beginning to limit the sale of police badges, but many other companies still offer them online, without restrictions.