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Name—not exactly common—age, race, and city of residence match.

Probably the church is going to suspend his choir membership.

- Jim

Could be. The incident that you referred to occurred in Brazoria County. Texas City is in Galveston County. The county line is pretty close. I don't know how far "checked with other departments" goes.

- Jim

The MPA doesn't require a driver to inform a police officer if he has a weapon, even if asked.

Criminals carrying illegally also are not required to notify.

The CHL law does require presenting a CHL when asked for ID, but there is no penalty for failing to do so. Your favorite state representatives could get this requirement completely removed in 2013 if they wanted to—if the institutional cops did not raise Cain.

In any case, I am not stopping for any car that is not a police cruiser that I recognize as such. If it is in fact a legitimate cop, a whole bunch more real cops are going to show up, and we'll sort things out. If it is a phony, most likely he is not going to keep chasing me.

I don't see a bogus badge playing any useful role in any of this.

- Jim

If the guy wants to be a fake cop, he probably has a real handgun already. And a badge. They sell badges on eBay.

That does not diminish the level of mischief that someone like this could do to an honest citizen. Many of these guys are rapists.

(I actually have a joke badge that would look real enough in the dark. I would never even carry it on my person, of course.)

- Jim

We would hope, but the default sentence for first-time non-violent offenses seems to be probation (unless they have a mandatory minimum sentence—which mostly is for drug offenses).

Maybe the guy has something else in his background that will result in a prison sentence.

I'm inclined to think this incident may have been one of his earliest exploits, and he either got enough of a thrill pulling over a car or had second thoughts about whatever plan he had.

I knew a guy in college who did something this and was charged with impersonating an officer. He was a decent guy and probably would not have hurt anyone, but he was obsessed with being a first responder. He actually was a volunteer fireman.

- Jim

Yesterday on I-45 around FM 517, a police impersonator allegedly followed a lone woman driver and activated a blinking blue light inside the windshield of his Pontiac G6 (a very typical police cruiser ).

After pulling the woman over, the suspect continued driving without getting out of the car.

The victim called 911. The 24-year-old suspect was arrested by Webster police and turned over to Texas City, which is where the alleged offense occurred. He was charged with impersonating a peace officer, a felony.

Texas City Police Chief wrote:Burby asked drivers to call 911 immediately if they’re unsure whether an unmarked automobile is a legitimate police car.

“They should ask for verification that this person is on duty and one of their officers,” Burby said.

Texas City police are not authorized to work traffic in unmarked vehicles, Burby said, noting anyone pulled over should do so in a safe place.

I need to print this out and laminate it.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/250858" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim