Fake police officer jailed for arrest attempt

[ScreamingMeMe]

22 weeks for what could well have been an attempted kidnap and rape/ murder.

But y'know, we're just silly women getting our knickers in a twist about a one-off incident.

A man who pretended to be a police officer and attempted to arrest a woman has been jailed.

Gary Shepherd was wearing a lanyard with the word "police" emblazoned on it when he spoke to the woman in a car park in Barrow on Tuesday evening.

He said he was arresting her for drug dealing, but she challenged him with the help of a passer-by.

At Barrow Magistrates' Court Shepherd, 44, admitted impersonating a police officer and was jailed for 22 weeks.

www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-58829818.amp?utm_source=upday&utm_medium=referral

At least he's been locked up quickly.

This, at the end of the report, sounds sensible - ought to be normal procedure everywhere I'd have thought.
His jailing came as Cumbria Police announced a new process for members of the public to confirm the identities of lone officers.
Officers will provide their collar number to anyone who asks and will contact the control room on the police radio to confirm their identity, location, that they are on duty and the reason they are speaking to someone.

@ErrolTheDragon

At least he's been locked up quickly.

This, at the end of the report, sounds sensible - ought to be normal procedure everywhere I'd have thought.
His jailing came as Cumbria Police announced a new process for members of the public to confirm the identities of lone officers.
Officers will provide their collar number to anyone who asks and will contact the control room on the police radio to confirm their identity, location, that they are on duty and the reason they are speaking to someone.

If the "officer" is using his own radio to contact the "control room", that wouldn't be very hard to fake. And the police ought to bloody well know that.

If the "officer" is using his own radio to contact the "control room", that wouldn't be very hard to fake. And the police ought to bloody well know that.

It's laughable, isn't it? They've just handed a gang of would be kidnappers a believable method of tricking a woman into being arrested.

There's not just police to pretend to be though.

Years ago man locally pretended to be a firefighter got into woman flat and it was a long and horrific assault.

I had seen the exact same thing he did on an episode of CSI.

The James Herbert Foundation is a campaign addressing fake arrests and bogus police officers. It aims to educate young and vulnerable people on what to do if stopped by anyone in uniform.

www.jamesherbertfoundation.com/

This really gives me the chills. I was stopped when out for a walk at night when I was 19 by three men in an unmarked car who claimed I met the description of a runaway girl and had to get in their car to go to the station. I was all alone on a road running through an industrial estate around 11pm.

I was a gobby brat back and wouldn't move nearer. I put my keys between my fingers and backed off saying sthg like "yeah yeah, fuck off or I'll call the real police". They had a quick confab and waved me away. Either I wasn't quite what they wanted (too old?) or I looked like I'd be too much of a nuisance.

Years later I knew a real officer and ran the scenario past him, and he said they would almost certainly not have been police based on a number.of things.

I believe it's a common ploy.

@JHFfoundation

The James Herbert Foundation is a campaign addressing fake arrests and bogus police officers. It aims to educate young and vulnerable people on what to do if stopped by anyone in uniform.

Thanks for this. It's good to know you exist.

I'm way too naive. Thanks for the JHF link.

I can see that giving their collar number, allowing person to phone is a good idea but how much more complicated is it going to make dealing with young drug dealing, county lines, stabbings (said on the news that knife carrying was rising again). Everyone is going to play for time, it might end up meaning fewer arrests.
Unintended consequences?

I believe it's a common ploy.

Really? On the strength of one occasion I assume years ago.

As my previous posts - making the polices' job harder, expecting more proof and documented evidence is not going to free up their time.
Like nurses most of their time is going to be documenting stuff - not actually doing the job.
I would say that it is a very rare event.

Thinking about Police using their position to their advantage or people impersonating police - I would say as far as rape or murder is concerned it is probably rare. It is shocking when it does happen. If it was a known problem women would be looking out for it and Sarah Everard probably would not have believed him.

I'm happy to be corrected if anyone has proof of it being quite common. But making arrests harder and more long winded to make could have the opposite effect of making women safer.