Alert: man impersonating a police officer in Eugene

The Register Guard

Police are looking for a man posing as a police officer who is driving a black and white Chevrolet Capric used a small light to pull a woman over recently and raped her.


Police are withholding details as to not hamper the investigation however the sheriff's public log includes a report of rape at 3:09 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Irving Road and klemia Street.

The release described the driver as a white man in his late teens to early 20s with shorter dark hair and a thin build. It said the car had been "involved in an assault of a female."

The press release offered the following instructions for people who are approached by someone they suspect is not a real police officer: "Ask for identification. Use a cell phone to call 911. A last resort would be to inform this person you are driving to a well-lit public place or police station. If you think this is not a police car before you stop, pick a well-lit public place at which to stop. Use hand signals to inform them you are acknowledging their presence. Remember: This is not permission to disobey a police officer's lawful order to stop."

first, I wanna make this clear that I'm not putting down the fact that this woman was raped, but I did what I make a comment about unmarked police cars.

With the use of superbright LEDs now appearing on police vehicles, it makes it easier for the police to disguise anything as an unmarked police vehicle. Okay, realizing that there are advantages to them for doing this, the question is, how does the public know that the person that is trying to stop you is actually a police officer? You don't!

One clue that may help, is that it has become commonplace in both marked and unmarked police vehicles the use of strobe lights that are permanently installed in the vehicle itself e.g. inside the marker lights, taillights etc. e.g., chances are you'll have a combination of both red and blue lights flashing at you inside the vehicle as well.

The Starsky and Hutch method of throwing a rotating light on top of the vehicle has become ancient history.

However, if you have any concerns at all, don't be afraid to call 911. They do understand and appreciate your concern about your safety.

This is my little rant and rave however about the use (or misuse)of emergency lights and security guards.

first and foremost, security guards are NOT police officers. Although they do have the right to detain you while on property that they are protecting, it is still a very touchy situation.

A long time ago, when I used to know more people in Eugene Police Department, I asked a friend of mine who was a sergeant at the time about the rule of thumb about stopping for vehicles shining their lights at you.

The reason that I had asked him this question, is for the same reason of what was happening above. There was somebody impersonating a police officer and pulling people over.

His reply to me was, "unless it has a blue light, you do not have to stop." At the time, I was working for a security company and had to be a little bit adverse in the usage of overheads and one of the rules for the use of such lights, is that you do not use them to stop vehicles. In addition, red lights in the front were a no-no unless you were fire or a tow vehicle, blue lights were strictly prohibited on nonemergency vehicles.

Moving forward to current time, I refer to Lane Community College and their "Public Safety Department", where it was starting to become commonplace to see them pulling people over with their RED lights mounted on top of their vehicles. I have even seen them with a vehicle on 30th Ave. (to be fair, I do not know the situation)

To my knowledge, and please correct me if I'm wrong, however, these are not sworn police officers.

Out of curiosity, I called the sheriff's department and ask them if they had the power to stop people. I was forwarded on to a sergeant and he asked me quite puzzled, "why wouldn't I stop?" So I proceeded to ask him what would happen if I refuse to stop. His response, "that it would be my choice, and that if I wished to use the college, then I have to follow their rules." He added, "that they were not allowed to stop people on 30th Ave." he never did answer my original question.

I had informed him what I knew about blue lights, and he said that I was misinformed.

To be clear, I do not have anything against the police, my father was an investigator for the state of Oregon, etc. a disclaimer which always seem to be necessary whenever talking about law enforcement.

I always make a point at stopping at all the stop signs, driving the speed limit (yes I like my safe driver discount on my insurance), however, if one of these rent a cops decides to pull me over, he better be able to prove that he is a sworn police officer, because that is the first thing that I'm going to ask you before he starts to do his business with me, and if he does not provide immediate proof, then I am driving on and filing charges.

How it relates to the story above, if you are not sure that they are sworn police officers that are attempting to stop you, then follow the advice above.
Signal to them that you are acknowledging their presence and immediately call 911 for assistance. If it is a legitimate traffic stop, their dispatcher will inform the officer that you are making the inquiry, however, if that does not turn out to be the case, the police take these issues quite seriously and they will instruct you on what to do next.