In the late 1970s, a relative of mine moved to Palm Beach, FL. He came back within a year, and told a number of incredible stories. One involved being stopped by a police officer and being told, “Police emergency - give me fifty dollars!” This particular relative had been known to exaggerate and even make up stories. So we all assumed this didn’t really happen.
The 1987 movie “Raw Deal” starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a disgraced FBI agent who’d been banished to a job as sheriff in a sleepy south Florida town. The movie begins with him catching a police impersonator on a motorcycle. Sheriff Arnold brought him to the station and reported that the fake cop had stopped a motorist for speeding and offered to not issue a ticket in exchange for a bribe. (The fake cop claimed he was driving to a masquerade party dressed a cop, and that the motorist had mistaken him for a cop and flagged him down to ask directions.)
This movie vignette - along with, more recently, this thread discussing rogue cops - got me wondering whether my relative’s story may have actually happened.
My GQ: was south Florida awash with police shakedowns and/or police impersonators three decades ago?
Did the section on bad cops claim they shook people down for small sums? Seems penny-ante, with all the drug money being dished out. I would think that small shakedowns would be more likely to be police impersonators.
My tall-tale-telling relative claimed the cop who shook him down was in a marked police car, which would pretty much guarantee it was a real cop.
But he also claimed the cop approached him with his gun drawn. This, combined with the fact that my relative has a strong prejudice against police, led me to speculate that he might have been victim of a police impersonator (in an unmarked car or on a motorcycle), and embellished it to make it sound like a real cop.
But it sounds like he might have been telling the truth.
Thanks for the reference - I look forward to watching the movie.
Jake and Elwood Blues were not, rather surprisingly, real cops.
With that out of the way, while most reputable law enforcement supply organizations will not sell you wig-wag lights or other things that aid one in impersonating an officer, they can certainly be had. And most folks would probably assume that any American-made sedan (like a Dodge Charger or whatever is used by police in your area) with a spotlight rig on the driver’s side is a cop (unless it’s marked as a taxi).
I was twice nearly accused of, and nearly charged with, impersonating a Federal agent simply for having my work ID in my wallet (I worked for a Federal law enforcement agency at the time). Fortunately, in both cases, after repeatedly pointing out that it said “CONTRACTOR” in big red letters, clearer heads prevailed.
There were these 2 guys who pretended to be cops and raped and murdered a bunch of women, feeding their bodies to the alligators afterwards. That particular article doesn’t specifically say that I guess but it’s the first one that came up on google.
EDIT: OK here’s an actual description. I guess the one guy actually was a cop?
