Impersonating an officer of the law

[ktatc1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tn
There is an individual living in an apartment complex that has told several residents that he is employed as a police officer. This person is not affiliated with any law enforcement organization. Several residents have observed this individual wearing a badge(shield) and even has fake lights in a personally owned vehicle. Is this a crime?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[Some Random Guy]

This person is not affiliated with any law enforcement organization.

How do you know that he is not a police officer?

Have you asked him what department he is with? Do you know where he is currently employed? It is possible that he is a reserve officer or a member of an auxilliary.

There are many personal vehicles in my area with blue lights installed for the officers who don't have the luxiry of taking a city police car home with them .

 

[JETX]

Is this a crime?

Impersonating a law officer is a crime. Contact your local law enforcement agency and report it. They will investigate and take appropriate action, if any.

 

[ktatc1]

Some Random Guy...
The impersonator has a girlfriend that admited during one of their many spats that he is not and has never been a cop. The girlfriend also admitted to him being incarcerated for approx. 1 year.

 

[divona2000]

Some Random Guy...
The impersonator has a girlfriend that admited during one of their many spats that he is not and has never been a cop. The girlfriend also admitted to him being incarcerated for approx. 1 year.

What makes her more believable than him?

 

[ktatc1]

Good point divona, however the basic question was answered. Also if you were a police officer, I'm sure you would be highly offended if you new of someone making false claims such as this.

 

[dave33]

Well, I looked into it a little bit. I guess I figured if a guy lied about his job ,than alot of desperate men at bars would be criminals.To my surprise in you're state , just saying you are a cop if you aren't is a crime.Section 90 of the police act of 1999 makes it fairly easy for a d.a. to make an impersonation case fairly easy. Never mind the lights or badge, making any statement or doing any act calculated to falsely to suggest membership of a police force is a crime.Sounds like in Tn to just lie about being a cop is a crime. Personally this person sounds like an idiot (lack of a better term,sorry).I would probably take little action, inform people, kick back and watch this guy make a fool of himself. Maybe even come up with a clever knickname. Something the guy would quickly realize. Whatever you choose,goodluck. P.S.-Probably should double check the facts. There are a lot of different badges for a lot of different reasons.

 

[HighwayMan]

Sorry Dave, you're wrong. There has to be intent to injure or defraud.

He can go around saying he's a cop and as long as there is no intent to injure or defraud it's legal.

Summary explaining the statute (I am trying to find the actual statute):

Under Tennessee law, a person commits criminal impersonation who, with intent to injure or defraud another person:

• Assumes a false identity;
• Pretends to be a representative of some person or organization;
• Pretends to be an officer or employee of the government; or
• Pretends to have a handicap or disability.

The important words in the criminal impersonation statute are injure and defraud. If you dress like a police officer in the spirit of Halloween, the behavior does not constitute criminal impersonation. If you dress up like a police officer in order to injure or defraud another, the behavior does constitute criminal impersonation.

 

[HighwayMan]

Okay, I found it. This is the text of the actual statute:


39-16-301. Criminal impersonation. —

(a) A person commits criminal impersonation who, with intent to injure or defraud another person:

(1) Assumes a false identity;
(2) Pretends to be a representative of some person or organization;
(3) Pretends to be an officer or employee of the government; or
(4) Pretends to have a handicap or disability.

(b) A person commits criminal impersonation who pretends to be a law enforcement officer for the purpose of:

(1) Engaging in an activity that is ordinarily and customarily an activity established by law as a law enforcement activity; and

(2) Causing another to believe that the person is a law enforcement officer.

 

[dave33]

Gotcha, I am glad you pointed that out. It seemed ridiculous to me as I was writing it. Obviously you are much more astute at this states laws and the relevant material. Let me explain why I wrote what I did. This is what I found. What caught my attention was the case law with the intent to decieve and the fact that it eventually got connected to (section 281) criminal justice act of 2003. Section 90 police act 1999 creates several offences relating to the impersonation of police officers or the poss. of articles of police unifrm.namely;1.Impersonating a police officer.2.Making any statement or doing any act calculated falsely to suggest membership of a police force.3. Wearing a police uniformcalculated to deceive.4.Poss. an article of a police uniform. The words calculated to decieve means likely to devieve. Whether there was intent to decieve is immaterial Turner vs. Shearer 1972 1 WLR 1387 DC. Any way what got my attention was this next statement. A person with intent to decieve or impersonates the police or makes a statement that he is such a member shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to jail for a term not to exceed 6 months (section 281) criminal justice act 2003.Anyway, without looking at the statute I wrongfully inferred through this info. that in that state simple deception was when it came to imper.a police officer illegal since it was in the crim. just. act. Sorry to o.p. for bad info. I am glad I was wrong. Highway, again sorry to waste you're time explaining the simplist of things to me . I'll try to stick to what I know. I hope you can see at least why I thought that, again my personal opinion was disagreement from what I was writing. Dave.

 

[HighwayMan]

If you try to do a lookup on Tennessee criminal code or laws I'm not sure how you end up with something obscure like the "police act of 1999" and start quoting from that.

How that act modifies or updates criminal law I don't know. There may be local statutes that prohibit the use of police-type badges/shields, emblems or uniforms, but the first source I would go to would be the state penal/criminal code.

When I Googled "tennessee police act of 1999" the only thing that shows up is YOUR post! So where that came from I don't know!

 

[FlyingRon]

Tennessee (and other states) typically pass their legislation as the "The SOMETHING act of What ever year this is. Of course the act mandates a change to the Tennessee Code Annotated which is what the real law is. The problem with quoting copies of acts, is that they're often bills that either were not passed into law or were revised subsequent to the copy you are looking at. The actual code is the place you want to look. Highway has the current citation.

You're in violation of the law if you say your a cop with the intent to defraud (trying to get a free donut probably even qualifies). You're also in violation if you pretend to be a cop in something that smells like law enforcement. This involves stopping people or coming up to stopped people on the roads, or otherwise making people act in a way they wouldn't if they didn't believe the person to be a police officer.

You've got cop hair.

 

[dave33]

Highway, It was 1996, sorry just one more thing I got wrong. Happy Turkey day.Dave

 

[FlyingRon]

The police act of 1996 and the Shearer case are from the UK. Not only is it not Tennessee, it's not even this country. I should have caught the goofy cite and the British-style spelling of the word offense.

 

[dave33]

Should I delete my posts?