BEAVERTON, Ore. (KOIN) — Two Beaverton motorists were pulled over for traffic stops late Wednesday night by a police impersonator.
Around 10 p.m., the first driver was pulled over near TV Highway and 153rd, Officer Jeremy Shaw told KOIN 6 News.
Anyone with information is asked to call Beaverton PD at 503.629.0111.
The case number is 16-2301340.
The driver “was being followed by somebody in a Mitsubishi Lancer. They saw what looked like to be a strobe light going off,” Shaw said. The driver “pulled off to the side of the road and the person in the Mitsubishi actually did a U-turn and turned and drove away from them.”
About 15 minutes later, a second motorist was pulled over at Cedar Hills and Hall, again by someone in a Mitsubishi. But this time, Shaw said, the fake cop followed through with the stop.
The driver of that car was 18-year-old Elizabeth Jamison. She was driving with her little sister on Cedar Hills Blvd when things took a strange turn.
“He just jerks aside really quickly behind me and this white strobe light from his car comes on,” Jamison told KOIN. “It was kind of bizarre but I decided to pull over because I didn’t want to drive away from a policeman.”
Jamison provided her driver’s license, and the fake cop yelled at her about her headlight and then left.
She said she knew all along something wasn’t right and as soon as it was over, she called police.
“He wasn’t in uniform, didn’t show me a badge,” Jamison said. “He told me he was an off-duty police officer.”
The fake cop is a clean-shaven white man with a bald head, Shaw said. “He had a distinctive tattoo down the inner part of his left arm from the elbow all the way down to the wrist.”
Beaverton police want the public to be aware of this impersonator, and reminds the public of what they should see in a traffic stop.
“We want people to know that if they’re being pulled over, they’re going to see red and blue lights. The person that is talking to them should be wearing a badge,” Shaw said. “Most of the time they’re going to be wearing full uniform.”
Motorists should pull over in a crowded, lit area, roll down the window slightly and talk with the officer. But if the motorist feels it’s not a true traffic officer, the motorist should call emergency dispatchers.
But, Shaw added, “We don’t want the public to take off. Clearly that’s a sign to us that something else is going on.”
Rarely, he said, an undercover officer will pull someone over, but they should always have a badge and identify themselves with a specific agency.
Filed under: Beaverton, Crime, Top Video, Washington County
