Police impersonation

Police impersonation is an act of falsely portraying oneself as a member of the police, for the purpose of deception. In the vast majority of countries the practice is illegal and carries a custodial sentence.

Impersonating a police officer is sometimes committed in order to assert police-like authority in order to commit a crime. Posing as a police officer enables the offender to legitimize the appearance of an illegal act, such as: burglary, making a traffic stop, or detaining.

Dressing up as a police officer in costume (e.g for Halloween), or pretending to be a police officer for the purpose of play or a harmless prank toward an acquaintance is generally not considered a crime, provided that those involved recognize the imposter is not a real police officer, and the imposter is not trying to deceive those involved into thinking he/she is. Nevertheless, replica police uniforms sold in the UK must not be identical to the uniforms currently used by the police, and traders have been jailed in the past for selling on genuine uniforms

The following impersonations class as the offence:

Much of the equipment described above is available for purchase by the general public, thereby enabling imposters to obtain the necessary materials to commit such a crime. While the equipment will not bear the name of a specific law enforcement agency, the unsuspecting victim may not notice the difference.

In an extreme case, a Hempstead, New York man set up a fake police station in addition to the above, where he interrogated those he arrested.

Some of the following crimes have been committed while impersonating a police officer:

The 2014 American film Let's Be Cops features the main characters pretending to be police officers. A popular webseries Dick Figures aired an episode called 'We're Cops' featured 'red' and 'blue' rob a bank dressed as a police officer.

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