I’m curious about something I see regularly on UK and NZ/Aus news footage. The police regularly have a checkerboard ribbon around their hats. Does that in and of itself designate a police officer? i.e. If I wasn’t wearing anything else incriminating but was wearing a hat with a checkerboard ribbon around it, would I be liable to being charged for incriminating a police officer?
In the U.S. the answer is “no”. Probably the same in Canada. Checkerboard pattern hatbands are not specific to police.
Perhaps impersonating a taxi driver?
I don’t know what the law might say, but the blue checkerboard association is very strong. Red/yellow checkerboard or stripes for emergency services.
Wikipedia calls the checkerboard pattern the Sillitoe tartan.
As mentioned in the Sillitoe wiki, it is definitely A Thing with the Chicago Police.
In NZ, the checkerboard doesn’t define you as a police officer. Officers take an oath at the end of their training courses, I believe. Wearing the tartan bands wouldn’t get you arrested for impersonating an officer unless you were wearing them in a convincing way and could be shown to be wearing them with criminal intentions, I think.
In the UK, the offence of impersonating a Police Officer only applies if there is clear intent to deceive. Merely wearing something that looks like a Police hat band probably won’t do that, depending on circumstance. Heck, you can buy plastic versions of the classic domed police helmet in any tourist shop in London.
But yes, the checkerboard pattern on a hat is a police thing. They have it on police vehicles too (but in blue and yellow).
In Canada, it seems to vary - the red band around the typical police hat rim indicates a city police officer; the RCMP wear a gold band, and IIRC the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) seem to have a light blue band. Googling images for the Surete de Quebec, I see a lot of them in cammo fatigues. Google any police force, and the vast majority of pics they don’t wear their hats.
“Impersonating a police officer” probably has a lot more to do with the specific situation and how you present yourself rather than a particular hat style. No doubt if the hat looks too much like a police hat and you seem to act like a policeman (I.e. I assume I can walk past these gates into the rock concert) you might be arrested.
In Australia, the pattern isn’t just used to identify police officers: it’s used to identify police stations as well. However, I doubt if just using the pattern without anything else to identify you as police would be illegal.
Yeah. And I just gotta laugh at all these civilians who hang those checkerboard headbands on their rear view mirrors thinking that it will prevent them from getting a ticket.
Someone wearing a checkerboard hat ribbon but no shirt is probably not a cop.
Yeah, no, that’s 'cause they’re protesting against pension cuts or somesuch. They do baseball caps too sometimes. But as I recall there is nothing special about the rims or ribbons on their normal hats. Certainly no checkerboard.
Especially if he shows up being arrested on COPS. 
It’s illegal to use that pattern on a motor vehicle, can’t see a problem wearing it on you clothing.