Teens Pull Over Police Chief

TxDoc · November 15, 2002

Teens charged after pulling over Adrian police chief

By David Panian - Daily Telegram Staff Writer

ADRIAN TWP. - Two Adrian teenagers playing a prank on motorists Wednesday are probably not laughing after being jailed.

According to police, the 18-year-olds would drive around in a car fitted with illegal blue and white lights and initiate bogus traffic stops, then drive off.

On Wednesday they were surprised to learn one of the motorists they pulled over was an off-duty police officer.

But not just any police officer. It was Adrian Police Chief Mike Martin. The teenagers are now facing misdemeanor charges of impersonating a police officer.

According to police, Martin was southbound at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday on M-52 approaching Howell Highway with his son when he saw a car come up behind him with blue lights on its hood. Martin was driving his personal vehicle and was off-duty, but still in uniform.

"I couldn't tell if it was a police car" when he first saw it, Martin said.

He turned onto Howell Highway and the car followed. After the two vehicles went up a hill, white strobe lights began flashing in the car's windshield. By then Martin had gotten a good look at the car, a black 1997 Dodge Intrepid.

"It didn't look like a police car to me, knowing what police cars look like," he said.

For the most part, law enforcement officers in Lenawee County drive Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Impalas.

Martin said he stopped and decided to exit his van. As he walked to the rear of his van, the car started to back up, but he pointed at the driver and motioned for him to come back, which he did. There was also a passenger in the car.

"They looked very surprised" to see a uniformed police officer get out of the van, Martin said. "I don't think they knew how to handle that."

"I immediately told (the driver) what he was doing was illegal," he added.

Martin took the driver's operator's license, gave the driver his business card and ordered him to meet him at the Adrian police station, which he did.

After dropping his son off at their destination, Martin went to the police station. Since the incident occurred outside the city, the Lenawee County Sheriff's Department was called to investigate.

According to a sheriff's department report released Thursday, the driver of the car, an 18-year-old from Adrian, told a deputy he had been stopped by a police officer the day before and was told the lights were illegal.

The Adrian police officer who stopped the car at 1:49 a.m. Wednesday gave the teenager a verbal warning to remove the lights, the report said.

The driver said he'd only had the lights installed for a couple of days, the report said. There were two blue lights mounted near the windshield washer sprayer on the hood and two white strobe lights mounted near the top of the windshield inside the car. He said that the intent of the lights was to make people think the car was a police car and to make them pull over.

He said it was funny to drive up behind someone and make them pull over, which they had done Tuesday near the Woodbury Estates apartments on South Winter Street and the Adrian Meijer store.

The passenger, also an 18-year-old Adrian man, turned on the strobe lights when they pulled over Martin, the report said. He said he and the driver had done it a few times because they think it's funny.

After determining the teenagers had been trying to impersonate police officers, the deputy took them into custody and lodged them at the Lenawee County Jail. They face up to a year in jail or a $500 fine.

Martin said that police cars usually have some kind markings and red and blue flashing lights, though not necessarily a light bar on top of the car. If someone is unsure if a car behind them with flashing lights is an actual police car, there are steps they can take to determine if it is.

"If you see no markings on the car, if you have a cell phone call 911," Martin said. A dispatcher will be able to determine if an officer is initiating a traffic stop.

If you don't have a cell phone, "don't pull over, but don't speed up, and go to an area with people and call police," Martin said. He suggested a business that's open and has people around.

No matter what, motorists should not approach a car that has pulled them over.

"Don't do what I did," he said.

elboberino · November 15, 2002

I know a kid that did something similar to that. He had blue and red lights in his grill and headlights that he got from Galls and was pulling people over on a normally busy street. The cops ended up blocking off the street and used a helicopter as well. The kid nearly peed himself when he found out why all the cars had stopped on the road. Nothing too serious happened to him though. I think they made him take out the lights, turn them over to the police, and do a couple hundred hours of community service. Come to think of it...I really don't like that kid.... :angry:

Larry · November 15, 2002

There must be something in the water in Michigan that causes people to be wantabe cops. The story posted is from Michigan. The 5 years I lived there it seemed that there was a story either in the Detroit Free Press or on Fox2 every month or so about a person impersonating an officer in a car. There was an outbreak of rapes in the Detroit suburbs of Oakland County with some psycho running around pulling women over then raping them. Next thing you knew the news had stories about females being charged with alluding officers because they were too scared to pull over for any cops.

It is a shame there has to be so many crazy people in the world. You can’t even trust a police officer that you were instilled as a child to have respect for.

z71ff · November 15, 2002

Earlier this year, a local university president was found to have pulled over a motorist on the highway using red & blues he installed on his crown vic and a fake badge.

State police are investigating whether the president of Central Connecticut State University flashed a badge and pulled over a motor-ist he then accused of speeding.

State police confirmed Wednesday they are investigating a complaint that university President Richard L. Judd displayed a gold, official-looking badge while directing a young motor-ist to the side of Route 9 last month.

He was given accelerated rehabilitation and 30 days probation.

Now if I did the same with the blue strobes I legally have on my truck... :angry:

k1500chevy97 · November 15, 2002

Never tried to pull over people when i had my lights in my truck ( 2 in the grille in the taillights and front turn signal and a dual halogen flasher above the rearveiw mirror )

but if they pulled over for me when enroute to a firecall i had no problem with that