Police impersonation is the act of falsely portraying oneself as a member of the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

for the purpose of deception.

Typology and methods

Criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

research has developed a typology of police impersonators, categorizing offenders as (1) "police enthusiasts" (or "wannabe cops"); (2) compulsive deviants; and (3) common criminals seeking material gain through thefts and robberies committed through vehicle pull-overs and

home invasion A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching i ...

s. A 2012 article in the ''American Journal of Criminal Justice'' noted that "Distinguishing between real and phony officers can be difficult, and impersonators present themselves in numerous manners and commit a wide variety of crimes. Impersonators do more than just pretend to be a law enforcement officer. At times, impersonators engage in serious and wide ranging crimes including

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

, and

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

." The same study found that "in general, police impersonators, depending on the type of offense, may be easily deterred. In vehicle pull-over cases, most impersonators fled when the targeted victim was on the phone with

911 911, 9/11 or Nine Eleven may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** The 2001 September 11 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, commonly referred to as 9/11 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that ousted the ...

verifying the legitimacy of the stop. Additionally, potential victims who questioned the legitimacy of the stop and challenged the fake officer tended to avoid further victimization." The 2012 study examined 56 police impersonation episodes from May 2002 to February 2010 from three U.S. metropolitan areas, dealing with 63 offenders and 71 victims. The study found that these incidents "most often involve one victim (76%), one offender (91%), no witnesses (75%), no weapon (68%), and result in no injury to the victim (96%)." The mean value of cash and property lost was $616. Of police impersonation episodes, 45% occurred on a highway, roadway, or alley; 20% occurred in or near the victim's home (such as a fake " knock and talk"); and 34% occurred in some other place. The study found that only 46% of police impersonation incidents were "cleared" (i.e., arrest made or resolved in some other way). Police impersonation has also facilitated

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

and

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

. Police "wannabees" may drive cars equipped with police-style emergency lights, wear police uniforms, and carry fake police badges. Some

sexual predator A sexual predator is a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" or abusive manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" ...

s have impersonated police to commit

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...

harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and ...

, and rape. Impersonation involving police vehicle and uniforms has also been used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle currency across the U.S.–Mexico border; within Mexico,

Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel ( , or ''Golfos'') is a criminal syndicate, Drug cartel, drug trafficking organization, and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which is perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in Mexico. It is currently bas ...

operatives have also posed as members of the Mexican police and

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

. In the United Kingdom, police impersonation "with intent to deceive" is criminalised by Section 90 of the

Police Act 1996 The Police Act 1996 (c. 16) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the current police areas in England and Wales, constituted Police Authority, police authorities for those areas, and set out the re ...

. The same section also restricts the sale of police uniforms and paraphernalia, although illicit trade in items such as warrant cards continues in the UK.

History

Police impersonation has a long history. In 17th and 18th-century

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, impostors presented to be

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners—including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition—it became known, ...

, or

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

s' officers to extort bribes or commit sex crimes. Between 1685 and 1701, 29 men in London were caught assuming the identities of law officers. In 18th-century

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty ...

, the

, officials, and yamen runners were often vulnerable to impersonation. There were almost 150 surviving recorded cases in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

of impersonations of its police, mostly the notorious

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

. A study by

Robert Gellately Robert Gellately (born 1943) is a Canadian academic and noted authority on the history of modern Europe, particularly during World War II and the Cold War era. Education and career He earned his B.A., B.Ed., and M.A. degrees at Memorial Unive ...

concluded that: "As the Gestapo and to some considerable extent also the Kripo attained a reputation for ruthlessness, brutality and mystery, their powers and reputation not only deterred, but called forth amateur imitators. From the point-of-view of impostors, the Gestapo (and Kripo) had the additional advantage of being detectives operating mostly in civilian clothes." In Nigeria, impersonation of

Nigeria Police Force The Nigeria Police Force is the principal law enforcement and the lead security agency in Nigeria. It was designated by the 1999 constitution as the national police of Nigeria, with exclusive jurisdiction throughout the country. As at 2021, i ...

officers remains a problem, inhibiting public confidence in police. During a two-day rampage in Nova Scotia in April 2020, the perpetrator, who killed 22 people, posed as a

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

officer and a drove a replica RCMP cruiser.Nadine Yousif
Nova Scotia mass shooting inquiry heavily criticises police response
BBC News (30 March 2023).

Effects

There is a limited body of research concerning police impersonation. Some scholars suggest that police impersonation may weaken public confidence in law enforcement and trust in authority, "particularly if victims believe that the event was a 'legitimate' police action undertaken by a corrupt cop."

References

{{Reflist * Crimes Law enforcement Impostors Deception

Typology and methods

History

Effects

See also

References