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We just recently had a case of this a few towns away from me in PA, so I started poking and googling around looking at cases in which someone impersonated a police officer, fire fighter, or EMS worker. There are TONS of cases to read!
Of course there are the cases of rapists and murderers who might don a police uniform and try to lure women by pulling them over or approaching them when they are out alone at night. But the motive in those cases is rape and/or murder. So let's leave those guys out of this.
Then you have the pervy sex criminals, who get arrested for pretending to be an EMT or a cop, and try to have their way with drunken women coming out of bars. But again, they have a motive: some sort of sex crime.
Then we have the guys who pretend to be a fire fighter, police officer, or EMS worker to solicit donations for a fake cause, or to get discounts in various businesses. So in these cases, there is a financial motive.
But if you forget all those guys for a second, you then find a whole other group: men who impersonate first responders for none of those above motives. Sure, some might be completely delusional, but they likely aren't schizophrenic, because their behavior and thought processes are very organized. These non-psychotic guys pose as EMTs, fire fighters, and in the case of the guy in Bucks County PA recently, a Fire Police Officer. They rig their vehicles up with the flashing lights, they listen to police radios, and they show up at emergency scenes and act like they are "helping."
In my googling, I also found some online discussion forums with lots of first responders who are very familiar with these guys. In different regions, they even have nicknames for them (many of which can't be repeated here). A lot of these weirdos get arrested repeatedly for "impersonating a public servant," or whatever their particular state calls that crime. These guys frequently show up at accident scenes or near fire scenes, start directing traffic, and leading people to some place to sit, even acting like they are examining people for injuries. They tend to get in the way and disrupt the activities of the real first responders who are actually trying to help people and who are actually qualified to do so. It seems like they have this weird paraphilia--they get off on people thinking they are first responders. Maybe it's the attention, the implied power, the respect, or more likely, the need to be seen as a "hero."
And I keep saying "guys" because in several hours of poking around the internet news stories (I'm home sick today) I couldn't find a single case of a woman getting arrested for this; just guys.
They are almost always white males, and in most of the stories I've found, they're in their 30s and 40s.
Apparently some of these guys were rejected from the police academy or fire fighting academy in the past. But then I would think, if you really have a need to be a "hero," you might at least get EMT training (I think there are lower and higher levels, so if you're no rocket scientist, you might at least get the lower level cert). Plus, there are a lot of volunteer fire fighting positions, though if you get rejected from something unpaid, you've really got problems. But no, these guys can't even do those things; they fill their hero need by impersonating the real thing.
I started checking scholarly psychology resources, but so far, no luck on any journal articles on this.
Have you heard of this? Have you ever known a guy like this? If you are a first responder, have you run across these guys? It's just really creepy.
Last edited by Tracysherm; 03-12-2015 at 03:10 PM..
There were a couple of guys in the news recently who were caught impersonating military personnel. They'd go out in public in uniform and they'd often get special treatment, discounts, etc. but when confronted by actual service people or veterans their stories fell apart.
I worked as an EMT in Austin, TX from 2001-2006, first as a Travis County employee of the TCME and then later while attached to Brackenridge Hospital. (And even a few months working with the StarFlight crews.)
So I can safely agree that I know form first-hand experience that every big city EMT can tell you these guys exist. We would see continually a small cadre of, oh, three or four guys who would roll-up on, maybe like 70% of the vehicular accidents or even domestic or public violence calls we responded to. They all had police scanners, of course, which are legal. And in fact, no law prevents them from doing what they do, so long as they stayed out of our way.
Most of 'em are harmless wannabes; they would get as close to us as they could and shout words of encouragement, or sometimes offer unsolicited advice. A couple of them must have watched a lot of TV or read a lot on the first-responder medical procedures, as they seemed to know the lingo and would sometimes recite aloud to the crowd what we were doing. LOL. Like a running commentary.
We never rally had any problem with them, except a couple times they would get in the way, like trying to open the ambulance door for us or something. Or help pick-up our equipment as we were finishing-up and getting ready to roll inbound to the ER. The trick was to tell them right from the gitgo to "give us room and stay back" or we'd have to have the cops run 'em off. Since these guys didn't want to be 86'ed from the scene or future ones, they usually complied well.
One guy actually saved me from getting hurt once. I was walking backwards giving hand=signals and trying to guide our ambulance driver through a tight spot at the entry to an alley downtown, and I would have stepped in the path of an oncoming car but he grabbed my shirt and pulled my out of the way! LOL
Last edited by Der Vogel; 03-12-2015 at 07:18 PM..
Those guys seem more like "first responder groupies," but I wonder if they'll stay that way (harmless) or escalate their behavior?
If they are just showing up in their own cars (or borrowed Mom's car) in civilian clothes, that's one thing. But the ones in all these articles have gone a couple clicks past that: wearing uniforms or insignia, putting flashing lights on their cars, show fake first responder ID, and portraying themselves as real first responders to the civilians on the scene.
I'm sure that not all the harmless groupies get to that level, but I'd bet that all the whack-jobs (that's a clinical term) who take it to the next level started out acting like those harmless groupies.
"Groupies" is a better term for the cats I was talking about.
(But the EMT groupies I preferred were the ones that hung-out at our bars. And they were of a different gender, luckily! LOL) But I was married then so I could never partake. Damn.
Yeah..dressing-up in the unis is a little over-the-top. I consider that some sort of neurosis. And the lights on the car is flat-out illegal: they cannot be blue or red.
This thread reminds me of the great movie I just saw called "NightCrawler"with Jake Gyllenhall. Did you see it? I think it should have won the Oscar this year.
It's likely an amalgamation of "hero worship / groupie-ism / empty lives lived vicariously through others". I would surmise a good percent are types who wanted to be in those roles but couldn't make the grade as Der Vogel aptly mentioned the 'wannabes'. Others who do this probably associate with these occupations due to their roles as current day's closest approximation to chivalrous knights and think by somehow being there to witness or perhaps participating they can assume that status. Lame but I'd gather harmless until they get to be the type that stages or creates emergency situations in the hope of being a 'hero'.
They can probably recite lines from the countless TV shows which glorify these occupations. I can't speak to knowing any of these types directly.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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Originally Posted by ciceropolo
It's likely an amalgamation of "hero worship / groupie-ism / empty lives lived vicariously through others". I would surmise a good percent are types who wanted to be in those roles but couldn't make the grade as Der Vogel aptly mentioned the 'wannabes'. Others who do this probably associate with these occupations due to their roles as current day's closest approximation to chivalrous knights and think by somehow being there to witness or perhaps participating they can assume that status. Lame but I'd gather harmless until they get to be the type that stages or creates emergency situations in the hope of being a 'hero'.
They can probably recite lines from the countless TV shows which glorify these occupations. I can't speak to knowing any of these types directly.
Yeah, "wannabes" (and their kin, "vigilantes") are an interesting phenomenon. But probably mostly harmless, until maybe they add 'guns' to the mix, like in the case of law enforcement groupie and self-styled "neighborhood watch volunteer", George Zimmerman.
Yeah, the guy in our recent local story was not harmless. He decided on his own to park his vehicle in the middle of an intersection and started directing traffic.
We dont like police impersonators at all... here they are generally more harmful than what is described... its California after all... if we find one we do everything we can to put them in prison
I have arrested one person in my career for impersonation of a police officer ( a misdemeanor here)... I did a careful job of gathering evidence on him.. wrote a thorough report.. even took his "plain wrap" car.. he got a year in county...
Before he was released he was charged with murder in another case where he blew up his girlfriend.. so he certainly wasn't harmless
he was a white male
We do however get lots of drug rips by "fake"police.. they arent wannabes.. they are cartel members
As to EMTs and other responders... doesnt really happen where I work.. they would be exposed immediately because the professional non volunteer agencies provide service and know who is who
But if you forget all those guys for a second, you then find a whole other group: men who impersonate first responders for none of those above motives. Sure, some might be completely delusional, but they likely aren't schizophrenic, because their behavior and thought processes are very organized. These non-psychotic guys pose as EMTs, fire fighters, and in the case of the guy in Bucks County PA recently, a Fire Police Officer. They rig their vehicles up with the flashing lights, they listen to police radios, and they show up at emergency scenes and act like they are "helping."
They're just social dorks that wouldn't get attention otherwise. I've heard them in the auto forum bragging about how other drivers slow down when they see their car.
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