Hamilton police say the man who pulled over a car on the Linc was not a cop
Local police say that a man allegedly dressed like an officer who approached a vehicle on Hamilton Mountain Friday was not a cop.
A man reported that he was pulled over on the Lincoln Alexander Parkway near Upper Gage Avenue before 12:30 a.m.
The driver told Hamilton police that the vehicle that pulled him over was a dark coloured SUV with emergency lights inside the windshield.
Noticing the apparent police car behind him, the driver said he pulled over.
The driver said a man dressed like a police officer left the vehicle and approached his. But when the man got closer, the driver had a better view and suspected that the individual did not resemble a Hamilton officer.
The driver immediately drove away without speaking to the man and contacted police.
Police say the suspicious male" was not a cop.
The suspect is described as a 25- to 30-year-old white man. He's about six-feet-tall with brown hair. The man was wearing a blue short sleeve shirt - similar to the shirts worn by police cadets - and black jeans. The man had two earrings in each ear, one small and one large silver ball. He was wearing a gold badge with a star that said police."
The vehicle was described as a black coloured Ford police SUV interceptor, possibly 2013, with a front ram bar. It had tires and rims similar to Hamilton Police vehicles.
The vehicle had four red and blue light strips, approximately 12 inches long. Two strips were stacked on top of the others.
Detectives from the criminal investigation branch are investigating the incident.
Police are asking anyone who has had an interaction with an individual impersonating an officer to come forward.
In a media release, police wrote that the public's trust in the police is very important and incidents like this can cause the community to second guess a police officer's identity."
Police suggest asking officers for their badge number and calling police for confirmation if there is any question whether or not someone is a Hamilton Police Officer.
Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com