14 year old inpersonates police officer and almost gets away with it (Chicago: home, to live)

[eevee]

Originally Posted by advocatusdiavoli

Why scary? Showing so much dedication he could have been the best, most prefessional cop in the area that day

it's scary b/c that power can be used for evil (ie, guy from CMIYC was a con artist who used his skills to commit crimes)

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Manigault

This remains me of the time a 14 year old made it all the way through USMC boot camp. He looked older.

Or all the people who impersonate bus drivers - which seems to be big in Florida - it has happened in Miami (http://www.news4jax.com/news/16970491/detail.html - broken link) and Fern City.

[advocatusdiavoli]

Originally Posted by eevee

it's scary b/c that power can be used for evil (ie, guy from CMIYC was a con artist who used his skills to commit crimes)

I was trying to be sarcastic. See my other post.

[Mamama Mia]

Originally Posted by advocatusdiavoli

I think you are missing the point. Kid is a kid. He is young and dumb. But what about CPD? The kid was able to enter the station and full some cops, even ranking ones. Could anybody just walk into a police station and claim to be a cop and be welcomed? What if it wasn't a kid with a fantasy but a criminal trying to snoop around the police station? Why didn't they check the info he was giving, his credentials? We are talking about terrorists attack preparadness and then you have scuh a blatant display of a serious security breach.
Anyway you look at it CPD became a laughinstock. They are supposed to catch criminals and a 14 years old robbed them blind. Wow. It seems that CPD could use some training and huge increase in departmental discipline.

PS. CPD could definetely pay more attention to their uniforms, headgear etc. When the uniform/appearance rules are so lax with plethora of official CPD t-shirts, hats, caps, jackets, pants, shorts etc etc it is just too hard to say what exactly is a cop uniform and credentials in Chicago. Where is Jo Weiss?

I agree that the CPD is at fault.
The point is not lost on me at all. I am calling the mother out. I am so sick of parents putting the responsibility for their kids' screw-ups off on someone else. The mother looked ridiculous on the news this morning talking about what is wrong with the police? This is not the first time her child has been caught impersonating an officer, maybe she needs to take some responsibility for her child. When my kids were 14, they would not have "gone missing" (for a minimum of 5 hrs. in this particular case) for hours.

[SubaruFiend]

That's like the guy who keeps getting caught impersonating rail workers out in NY........ Even though they have a PASSION for this stuff to the point that they are impersonating........ it's still a BAD thing because they aren't FULL trained to do the job. (especially the 14 year old!)

[Venom]

Imagine a shootout happened and he was called to it.
Hahaha

[At1WithNature]

Sadly, this is what I would expect from a police department that only solves 37% of their homicides.

[At1WithNature]

Originally Posted by Mamama Mia

They finally called him out because he had "sagged" his pants.
And WTF is wrong with his mother as she blames others? Guess what, lady, it's your kid, he's 14 and you should know what he is up to!

Great post. Sadly, not too many inner city parents take responsibility for their or their kids' actions. it's a lot easier to point fingers.

also, this proves that the CPD has a total lack of discipline. every monring, it is procedure to do roll call. they did not on this particular day and i would bet that they do not follow procedure on most days. if they did roll call, he would have been found out right away.

[advocatusdiavoli]

Originally Posted by Mamama Mia

I agree that the CPD is at fault.
The point is not lost on me at all. I am calling the mother out. I am so sick of parents putting the responsibility for their kids' screw-ups off on someone else. The mother looked ridiculous on the news this morning talking about what is wrong with the police? This is not the first time her child has been caught impersonating an officer, maybe she needs to take some responsibility for her child. When my kids were 14, they would not have "gone missing" (for a minimum of 5 hrs. in this particular case) for hours.

I see what you are saying and I am not for parents refusing responsibility for their kids upbringing or action however please keep in mind we are talking about a minor whom CPD ALLOWED to act as a police officer. What if the kid was diagnosed with mental illness compelling him to act out his fantasies, would my point be clearer then?
I really wonder if these events are gounds for the lady to sue the department as it clearly displayed negligence in verifying kid's credentials and subsequently put him in direct risk associated with performing official police duties. I think CPD already admitted their guilt citing this event as a lack of security on part of the department: "This individual [the boy] has identified an egregious breach in security," Deputy Supt. of Patrol Dan Dugan said at an afternoon news conference".
If I were an attny I would contact the lady as soon as possible and offer contingency work. This case would settle very fast

PS. Why sue them? So it does not happen again.

[Avengerfire]

The kid was part of the "police explorer" program. This program exposed him to many CPD procedures.

City of Chicago - 25th District Junior Police Explorers