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document updated 18 years ago, on Mar 26, 2008
Wannabe-cops range from the good to the very bad. The good includes people who are seriously considering the entering the profession, to geeks with too much time on their hands who learn as (sometimes more) of the lingo and criminal justice issues as the cops. The bad includes people who build a Crown Vic and purchase clothes to look like a police officer, and then use that in the commission of a crime.

(there are people in between who own a crown vic just for kicks, without any hostile intention, but (something I didn't realize) this is a bad idea because there are people who intend to do really scummy things with such a car, so driving that kind of car will absolutely mean that every cop that gets anywhere near you will be watching you like a hawk.)

(there are also people who start out neutral, but whose thinking from the beginning was more along the lines of vigilante... cops also don't like these people, because purchasing a Crown Vic is often the first time someone tries to actually act out their vigilante ideas) (and while some people might not immediately see a difference between vigilanteism and police work... it's plain as day to police officers, since they have a boss breathing down their neck, and are constantly motivated to stay within the lines due to the possibility of losing their jobs and/or being criminally prosecuted)

Stores where police equipment is sold

Police officers get riled up a bit when a store isn't selective to who they'll sell to, since this provides one of the main avenues for non-law-enforcement to acquire the equipment to impersonate an officer

Threads with cops getting worked up over impersonating