CENTRAL POINT, ORE. — Local law enforcement agencies are issuing a warning after they say a man posed as a police officer over the weekend and pulled a driver over.
“She became suspicious and eventually confronted him and wanted to call 9-1-1, at which time, the individual left the scene,” said Cpt. Nathan Sickler with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
The case ended without anyone being hurt, but that’s not always the case. This raises the question,how do you tell if the person who pulled you over is who they really say they are
When it comes to vehicles, “We are always going to do more than just the windshield lights. There are typically the lights that are going to be in the grills or in the headlights, which would be very difficult to emulate,” explained Lt. Mike Budreau, of Medford Police.
In this day and age, uniforms are no sure thing.
“The badge, the duty belt, the radio, they’ll probably be talking in the radio, you’ll hear traffic potentially. We can’t say that no one will ever acquire some of these items but the likelihood is very low,” said Cpt. Sickler.
If you are still uncertain about either, you can ask to see their identification card, or tell the officer you want to call 9-1-1 just to verify who they are.
“The most sinister cases are the ones where there’s some type of motive of sexual assault behind the whole thing and that’s our biggest concern. Because that has happened in the past and fortunately we’d never want to see that again,” said Lt. Budreau.
Impersonating an officer is a punishable offense and is considered a class c felony.
As for the case over the weekend, the suspect is described as 40 to 45 years old, with an average build, and thinning hair.
If you have information on this case, call the sheriff’s office.
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