In Florida impersonating any public officer is a third degree felony unless the perpetrator is committing another felony and the impersonating becomes a first degree felony. The statute applies to persons impersonating OR acting under color of authority. I know the cops and State Attorney vigorously peruse any accusation of impersonating a police officer. Decades ago a couple of punks were harassing my brother and claimed to be cops. I got the real cops involved and they tuned these guys up pretty good. A couple of years after I graduated High School one of my classmates told me he had hired on to Florida Highway Patrol as a Trooper. I doubted him and called FHP. They sent a couple of Troopers to see him and put the Fear of God in him. I know for a fact this fool wearing the garb described by the OP would have been in deep shit in Florida.
Glad we’re not having any LEO threads anymore. God forbid we’d want to criticize the TSA and have a thread locked. :rolleyes:
I have a Navy Seals tshirt, does that count ? 
Actually, I see this as a serious problem.
Lots of people were FD and PD shirts. My friends ‘on the job’ in NYC gave me some when I went to Afghanistan.
The problem is the duty belt and other gear. Clearly, he is trying to impersonate and LEO. In my area more than a few rapes and robberies have been committed this way.
Even if he just some nerd, he is using this image to influence people.
FDNY and NYPD shirts and hats are universally accepted as worn in support of FDNY and NYPD so they are different. If you wear JSO, FHP, POLICE or any other such insignia in Florida you better have a bail bondsman lined up.
I just now recalled an acquaintance who was a Corrections Officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He stuck a JSO sticker logo on his car and a JSO police officer made him take it off.
Yea I was wondering this one too. But maybe this is the thread that opens it back up? I’m cool with that, seems like people have all chilled a bit.
The policy on LE threads is still in place and will be until further notice. I’ve been monitoring this thread and I’m sure other mods/staff are as well. I haven’t locked it because it has dealt more with questions about impersonation of LE more than LE and their actions. If that changes then it will be locked. If another mod/staff decides to lock it before that happens they have my backing 100%.
As an aside note, I’m always hesitant to wear anything from any kind of department…group, or organization that is part of an achievement or profession.
Just a natural aversion. I have one exception, my mom bought me an FDNY shirt in about 2003-2004, I wear it occasionally.
I don’t feel awkward because… clearly I live in South Carolina and am not affiliated, but it’s more of to me, one of those things one would wear in support of all of the guys who gave their lives that day.
She bought me a SEAL Shirt about a year later, I can honestly say I never wore it (Whatever, I thought I’d end up in the military, that was the plan in High School, changed my mind, decided I’d wait and go to college and then decide, went to college, came to a decision, anyway), I told her I loved her, appreciated the gift, but said I simply couldn’t wear that. She didn’t get it, she was pretty devastated and thought that I didn’t like it, she never understood what the point I was trying to convey.
The way I see it, too many people have fought, died, and served this country to throw on a shirt or bumper sticker and try to claim to be something you’re not. People have died in even training for that kind of thing and in service of this country, to me to wear something like that, is just very disrespectful.
But that’s how I view something like that. I also don’t wear camouflage, or other things like that.
But that’s just me.
I was thinking about this…
Any chance this guy was watching too much Dog The Bounty Hunter?
Duane Chapman is a convicted felon and an insult to anything even resembling LE work.
But that’s just my opinion.
I doubt it. I really got a strong ‘mall ninja/low-rent security’ vibe off of him.
Total lack of professional demeanor. In a different dress, I would have pegged him as a pill-head. I think he was a rent-a-cop with a wanna-be complex.
No shield and no sidearm plus a non-repeater capable cheap FRS radio and no retention on his spray or cuffs set off a big alarm in my head. The totality of his image and demeanor told me he was no police officer.
A lackey for some bail bondsman would be my guess. Either way, if he’s up to no good he’s bound to get caught up in the system eventually.