Michael A Haber PA Criminal DUI Defense Litigation Miami Blog

Florida Man with Apparent Cop Fetish is Busted for Impersonating a Police Officer in Hernando County.

Meet 23 y/o James Buck, a wanna-be cop who blew any chance that he may have ever had at being one (yes, that's him below...).

Buck was stopped by Hernando County, FL Deputies after a citizen called 911 complaining that a reckless driver in a SUV had nearly crashed into his car on Christmas eve.  The caller indicated to 911 operators that after the near collision the SUV operator got behind him, activated flashing lights and seemed to be trying to initiate a traffic stop.  The driver was suspicious, did not stop his car and instead called 911.   In the meantime the SUV pursued, at high speed, until marked police vehicles caught up and initiated a traffic stop of their own.

Apart from police-styled flashing lights hard-wired and mounted into the full-sized black SUV (four (4) of them in the grille and one (1) on the interior of the windshield), REAL world cops located the following other items:  A police-styled badge hanging from the rear-view mirror, a second imitation badge in Buck's wallet (which was itself a police-styled wallet manufactured to hold a police badge), a siren / PA system mounted underneath the hood, a front facing surveillance / dash camera, a "Department of Defense registered vehicle" sticker affixed to the windshield, a "Police Interceptor" emblem attached to the rear of the SUV, an additional (spare?) "Police Interceptor" emblem, a Hernando County Sheriff's Office business card and a "Let's Be Cops" DVD.

Buck was positively identified by both the driver and passenger of the vehicle that he almost struck, attempted to pull over and which initiated the 911 call, who stated that he was "acting like a cop and trying to pull us over", resulting in his arrest for impersonating a police officer.  In a perfect world he would have also been charged with having piss poor taste in movies as well (it's hard to fathom a worse flick than that...).

Impersonating a police officer is a serious offense.  The "generic" garden variety is a 3rd degree felony (in Florida) punishable by up yo 5 years in state prison, and if you do it during the commission of another separate offense then its a 2nd degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison. Cops take this offense seriously, and oftentimes personally.  If you ever find yourself in a situation where you reasonably question whether or not someone is a cop then CALL 911 ASAP.  The cops, the real cops, will not hold that against you and will completely understand your REASONABLE trepidation (reasonable meaning that your concerns are legit and understandable, such as the one in the situation described in this blog post).

(As an aside, the pic above is an actual photo from the UK.  In May of this year a British man was arrested in Manchester for impersonating a police officer when he showed up in public dinning a pig mask, a toy "Bobby" (British police) helmet and a police styled jacket.  See: Man Dressed as Pig Arrested for Impersonating a Police Officer ).  

Memo to James Buck:

If I were to have a police fetish then I suspect that it'd look a little more like this than you....