Why Do People Impersonate Police Officers?

[fhmiii]

I only ever encountered this once with a shoplifter.  It was obvious the guy wasn't a police officer just from his unkempt appearance and twitchiness.  It wouldn't have mattered if he was since he stole a couple hundred dollars worth of merchandise.

I saw this with a guy in Michigan where his car said "Emergency Response." It was unusual since it had green lights, and then saw the more notorious Jeremy Dewitte, after encountering one of his contractors on a Florida vacation passing through Orlando. It was clear they weren't police officers based on their behavior, and even got to see Motor 1 himself flying by on a motorcycle. It's almost as if these posers do this without understanding the consequences of their behavior.

To be technical, this person did nothing wrong, and there's no consequences if the person isn't actually trying to act like a cop.  "Emergency Response" can have numerous meanings (Look at a plumbing van or roofing truck, and you may see something along the lines of 24 Hour Emergency Response or similar). Green lights have no emergency meaning in any state.  There's a lot of latitude on what someone can write on their vehicle, and how someone can add auxiliary items to their vehicle.  As long as they're not trying to pull someone over or act as a cop in any way, this person's car is perfectly legal.

Somewhat off-topic, but when I moved back to Missouri I was astonished to see that so many tow trucks have red and blue flashing lights, even though they are not police, fire, or ambulance.  Coming from Georgia, where having those lights (or any color not white or amber) would get a tow truck driver at least ticketed if not arrested, I found it somewhat unsettling.

Also, in my opinion, medical emergency response should have green lights.

• Green is much more visible to the human eye than red
• Green is even more visible to the human eye than blue
• Green distinguishes medical from police and fire

Of course, many jurisdictions have no differentiation in color at all.  I forget where I was that the police had red, blue, and white strobes.

[jeffandnicole]

I only ever encountered this once with a shoplifter.  It was obvious the guy wasn't a police officer just from his unkempt appearance and twitchiness.  It wouldn't have mattered if he was since he stole a couple hundred dollars worth of merchandise.

I saw this with a guy in Michigan where his car said "Emergency Response." It was unusual since it had green lights, and then saw the more notorious Jeremy Dewitte, after encountering one of his contractors on a Florida vacation passing through Orlando. It was clear they weren't police officers based on their behavior, and even got to see Motor 1 himself flying by on a motorcycle. It's almost as if these posers do this without understanding the consequences of their behavior.

To be technical, this person did nothing wrong, and there's no consequences if the person isn't actually trying to act like a cop.  "Emergency Response" can have numerous meanings (Look at a plumbing van or roofing truck, and you may see something along the lines of 24 Hour Emergency Response or similar). Green lights have no emergency meaning in any state.  There's a lot of latitude on what someone can write on their vehicle, and how someone can add auxiliary items to their vehicle.  As long as they're not trying to pull someone over or act as a cop in any way, this person's car is perfectly legal.

Somewhat off-topic, but when I moved back to Missouri I was astonished to see that so many tow trucks have red and blue flashing lights, even though they are not police, fire, or ambulance.  Coming from Georgia, where having those lights (or any color not white or amber) would get a tow truck driver at least ticketed if not arrested, I found it somewhat unsettling.

I've seen a few NY tow truck operators in NJ flashing red and blue lights.  Which not only doing so in NJ is illegal (tow operators should only be using amber lights), in both cases they were operating south of Trenton, far removed from NY, and operating any flashing lights would've been questionable.  In one case they were flying down the shoulder in congested traffic, obviously not heading to any crash or disabled vehicle scene.

In the last case, there was an escort vehicle for a standard flatbed truck towing a standard SUV that was also flashing red and blue lights.  At that point, that's awfully close to acting like a cop, although at least they weren't doing anything to blatantly hold up traffic (the few people I saw in the area were passing them).

[Scott5114]

Also, in my opinion, medical emergency response should have green lights.

I always thought the DOT should get green lights, cause, you know, signs and stuff. (Here they use red and blue—they used to be limited to amber but a state law passed giving them the right to use red and blue.)

The full range I'd do would be:
Police - red/blue
Fire - red/white
Medical - blue/white
DOT - green
all other - amber

But I feel like the reason they don't use green is due to potential confusion due to a green light being a permissive condition.

[kphoger]

The green and white color combination immediately makes me think of border patrol.  (Even though they use red and blue lights, the vehicles are green and white.)

[Chrysler375Freeway]

I think one reason that people impersonate officers is to enjoy professional courtesies extended to LEOs. In addition to getting discounts at stores and restaurants, many times cops will let other cops go and not write them speeding tickets outside of their "home jurisdiction" because of such.

This, I have seen (getting discounts) in YT videos made by channels that contain police camera footage. A Florida man tried to get a police discount at Wendy's by flashing a fake badge, and, of course, in the "bodycam" footage of Jeremy Kurck of Arkansas showed him getting a police discount at Wendy's-while wearing an arson investigator badge, even though he said he was an "independent investigator."

[Chrysler375Freeway]

I only ever encountered this once with a shoplifter.  It was obvious the guy wasn't a police officer just from his unkempt appearance and twitchiness.  It wouldn't have mattered if he was since he stole a couple hundred dollars worth of merchandise.

I saw this with a guy in Michigan where his car said "Emergency Response." It was unusual since it had green lights, and then saw the more notorious Jeremy Dewitte, after encountering one of his contractors on a Florida vacation passing through Orlando. It was clear they weren't police officers based on their behavior, and even got to see Motor 1 himself flying by on a motorcycle. It's almost as if these posers do this without understanding the consequences of their behavior.

To be technical, this person did nothing wrong, and there's no consequences if the person isn't actually trying to act like a cop.  "Emergency Response" can have numerous meanings (Look at a plumbing van or roofing truck, and you may see something along the lines of 24 Hour Emergency Response or similar). Green lights have no emergency meaning in any state.  There's a lot of latitude on what someone can write on their vehicle, and how someone can add auxiliary items to their vehicle.  As long as they're not trying to pull someone over or act as a cop in any way, this person's car is perfectly legal.

Somewhat off-topic, but when I moved back to Missouri I was astonished to see that so many tow trucks have red and blue flashing lights, even though they are not police, fire, or ambulance.  Coming from Georgia, where having those lights (or any color not white or amber) would get a tow truck driver at least ticketed if not arrested, I found it somewhat unsettling.

Also, in my opinion, medical emergency response should have green lights.

• Green is much more visible to the human eye than red
• Green is even more visible to the human eye than blue
• Green distinguishes medical from police and fire

Of course, many jurisdictions have no differentiation in color at all.  I forget where I was that the police had red, blue, and white strobes.

I know that in Canada, green emergency lights signify volunteer firefighters in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta, and additionally, signify emergency operations command in New Brunswick. Security agencies are also using green, along with some emergency service volunteers, or signifies stopped emergency service command vehicles. Green also denotes Homeland Security or government/private security protecting critical infrastructure at the federal level, protection of nuclear facilities, oil/gas depots, water storage facilities and dams, gas pipelines, airports, defense facilities, maritime facilities, and other critical infrastructure, private security in Florida, counterterrorism agencies when used in conjunction with blue as distinguishers from other personnel, emergency management in Arkansas and Minnesota, used in conjunction with red on fire trucks in Chicago and San Francisco, municipal vehicles actively removing ice, snow, or other materials from roads in Michigan, volunteer ambulances in New York, Indiana, and Connecticut, mobile command post for the NYPD in New York City, command vehicles at a fire scene in Oregon, snowplows in conjunction with Amber in Ohio, national security agencies and counterterrorism in Puerto Rico, motorcycles on funeral escorts in Tennessee, and personal vehicles utilized by firefighters in Washington state.