View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2006 > September > 08
Friday, September 8, 2006
Clothes alone don’t make the policeman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police officers dress and look like police officers. Not really. Obviously some are assigned to plain-clothes duty and others, like me, are assigned to fabulous-clothes duty. (That’s not true either. I’m fabulous-challenged.)
Recently we had a burglary where the victim was a police officer. Some of the officer’s equipment and uniforms were stolen. A man was impersonating a police officer recently in the Norcross area.
Police officers, are required to show proper ID when they have contact with the public. Detectives have the cool badge-flip routine on television. By the way, this does not always work. The last time I did it, the badge came out and landed in the resident’s Ukrainian Borscht simmering on the stove.
Even uniformed police officers are instructed to show ID if the person requests it.
Here is what to look for: A badge that has the department’s name and either state or city seal on it as well as a badge number*. A patch that says what department it is. Even then, if you’re not easy about it, make a confirmation call. The officer has a badge number. Read it and confirm it if you think you need to.
Each jurisdiction has different style police cars. You may want to be familiar with what a Sandy Springs police car looks like, or the design of the police cars in that area you live in.
In Georgia, police cars are authorized to make traffic stops only if they have a blue light and at least six-inch letters, identifying that department, visible on the car. Some traffic cars are slick tops but all of them have the lettering.
A number of years ago, Cherokee County had the infamous “Blue-Light Rapist.� He pulled cars over with a plain car and a dash tear-drop light. Several women were victimized by him. Back then cell phones were either non-existent or four-feet long weighing ten pounds.
Most police departments inform officers that when pulling a car over, the car’s driver may be a woman or even a man who is uneasy about being pulled over in an isolated or semi-isolated area. It is generally accepted for the driver to wave to acknowledge they are being pulled over, and then AT A NORMAL OR MAYBE SLIGHTLY SLOWER SPEED, continue to a public area such as a gas station, store, or restaurant. The importance here is to acknowledge and then reasonably slowly drive to the area. If you attempt the above steps at 75 to 80 MPH, it’s called a chase**.
The bottom line is law enforcement officials will show you ID and you should not hesitate to ask to see it, especially from detectives and others in plain to semi-fabulous clothes.
- Important
** Not good
