A weekend robbery has Chattanooga police looking into other cases for links that may show criminals posing as plainclothes officers during their crimes.
Two men took wallets from occupants of a 1600 Willow St. home about 3 a.m. Sunday, first distracting them with a badge.
“They walked into the people’s yard, flashed a badge, said they were police and then pulled out the gun and the knife and demanded their wallets,” police spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary said.
As of Monday, police had not caught the suspects.
Victims described the two men as young black men “wearing baseball caps, waist-length jackets and jeans. Both were taller than 6 feet and between 160 and 180 pounds,” according to a police news release.
Weary said Monday that investigators were comparing cases to see if this was an isolated incident or if there are similar robberies.
On Oct. 19, police arrested Ernest Ervin Sims III in connection with three separate robberies at two different apartment complexes. According to police reports, in one of the robberies Sims gave a wallet back to the victim and told him he was an undercover police officer.
When the victim asked to see a badge, Sims said he didn’t have one and fled.
Weary said the Chattanooga police officer’s badge is distinct, with the city’s seal, an eagle on the top, the words Chattanooga Police and a number that is tied to the officer’s name.
“If there’s ever a situation where a person approaches you and says that they are police and they do not produce that badge, then you need to call and verify the individual with the department,” she said.
Criminals impersonating law officials isn’t a current nationwide problem, said Fred Wilson, a spokeswoman for the National Sheriffs’ Association.
“It’s out there, but I don’t hear of it as a huge practice,” he said.
Wilson said he isn’t aware of any laws forbidding the sale of police-looking apparel and accessories, but impersonating an officer is a felony.
Sandy Hawkins, manager at the Spirit Halloween Superstore in Hixson, said her store had problems with people stealing a few years ago. To combat the theft, her husband stood in the store dressed as a law official.
“We had people actually believe that he was and it worked,” she said.
The store carries police costumes, but they are “cheesy looking” and are distinguishable from the real thing, Hawkins said. The badges the store sells look especially fake, she said.
“They’re plastic and you can tell they’re plastic,” she said.
Susan Stringer, manager of Beauty and the Beast costumes in Red Bank, also said her police costumes and plastic badges are hard to mistake for the real thing.
“Mine do not look like anything like a real cop,” she said. “We are constantly having people complain because what we have doesn’t look real. And I always try to tell them: ‘Because there are bad people in the world who would use a fake police uniform to hurt people, that’s why we don’t carry them.'”
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