Brian B. brings us Section II: TAMSAR revisited

This is a classic case of "some people never learn." The statement made about impersonators having the same propensity of recidivism as child molesters is personified in Ponce de Leon's own actions, now five years after his arrest. One would think that the public humiliation, notoriety in the media, legal expenses and shame of having an entire fantasy shattered around you by the FBI would be good reason to rid oneself of the flashing lights, badges and other trappings that got them into trouble in the first place. But alas, Jaime Ponce de Leon did not learn...

In recent times, Ponce de Leon has fled his old stomping grounds of El Paso and nearby Las Cruces for a new life in Albuquerque. By his own blogs posted on his MySpace page, he claims that he has attended trade school at ITT Tech, and is now specializing in computers and networking. Why then is it that JPDL, as he refers to himself, has continued to update the illegal lights and sirens on the same style of Jeep that he was arrested in?

Honestly, pictures tell a thousand words. The remainder of this article is the photos of JPDL, his lights, uniforms and badge. To corroborate his own photos off the MySpace page, the last photos were shot by another party on September 3, 2007 to illustrate this article.

Recent pics, notice the progression of even more tchokies on the already ridiculously whacked out Jeep.

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(Rabidjade: Notice the sticker whackerness also)

This one was posted on the ****Forums page. He describes recently being out in the desert on a SAR "callout"...deja vu? Ironically, when the guys on the ****Forums give him a ribbing over the stock appearance of his Cherokee, he maintains that he "has to keep it that way" in order to qualify for a "red light permit from [his] agency"! Oh how the lies persist...

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Some articles to give you the media version of what happened and the outcome:

Associated Press Online

October 31, 2002 Thursday

BYLINE: CHRIS ROBERTS; Associated Press Writer

SECTION: DOMESTIC NEWS

LENGTH: 270 words

DATELINE: LAS CRUCES, N.M.

Four men who allegedly spent the last year pulling over people for speeding or ID checks were arrested Wednesday and charged with impersonating federal officers.

Authorities said the men became so brazen they even called police for backup. District Attorney Susana Martinez said officials were still trying to determine a motive.

The men are accused of stopping motorists in the Santa Teresa area near the Texas border and giving them verbal warnings. When officers responded to their calls for backup, the men apparently identified themselves as members of a federally funded search and rescue squad.

"We have hundreds and hundreds of law enforcement officers in the Dona Ana County area," Martinez said. "There's no way every officer can know all the others."

Officials became aware of the scam when a doctor reported he and his wife had been stopped twice under suspicious circumstances. Police later received more complaints.

Jaime Andres Ponce De Leon of El Paso, Texas, was charged with six counts of impersonating a police officer and two counts of false imprisonment stemming from pulling people over.

Douglas W. Dombrowski and Vernon E. Johnson, both of Las Cruces, and Paul Bunt of El Paso were charged with two counts each of impersonating an officer.

If convicted, the men face up to 18 months in jail for each felony charge of false imprisonment and one year for impersonating a police officer.

A magistrate set bond of $30,000 for Ponce De Leon and $10,000 for the other three. All were being held in Dona Ana County. It was not immediately known whether they had obtained attorneys.

University Wire

November 4, 2002, Monday

3 charged with impersonating officers at New Mexico State U.

BYLINE: By Levi Hill, Daily Egyptian

SOURCE: Southern Illinois U.

LENGTH: 440 words

DATELINE: Carbondale, Ill.

Three of the four suspects arrested on the New Mexico State University campus last week for impersonating peace officers were formally charged in Magistrate court Thursday on counts of impersonating peace officers spanning from Oct. 1, 2001, to March 9, 2002.

According to court documents Vernon Johnson, Paul Bunt and Douglas Dombrowski, all 21, have been charged with crimes of impersonating peace officers. The subjects have been charged with impersonating Bureau of Land Management officials. According to initial reports, a fourth suspect, Jaime Andres Ponce De Leon, was charged with felony and misdemeanor charges relating to the impersonations.

According to Alan Ables with the BLM, Susan Riedel, chief deputy district attorney with the Third Judicial Court is handling all information concerning the case. Riedel was unavailable for comment.

According to court documents, Dombrowski observed unknown subjects stealing beer from a local store in Santa Teresa and pursued and detained them in October 2001. Dombrowski then called for assistance from local law enforcement using a hand held radio. According to Sgts. Steve Calzada and David Keaton of the Sunland Park Police Department, when they arrived at the scene they observed Dombrowski in uniform detaining several people. According to the officers, Dombrowski identified himself as a Bureau of Land Management officer in his call for assistance.

In December 2001 Border Patrol Agent Larry Jones stopped the three men and Jaime Andres Ponce De Leon, the identified leader of the group, west of Santa Teresa. According to the report, the men were driving a Jeep Cherokee and identified themselves by name. Jones said the men were dressed in Battle Dress Uniform pants and had badges and hand held radios. According to Jones, the men told him they were law enforcement officers working underage drinking.

According to court documents, Dona Ana County Sheriff's Deputy Carlos Solano was dispatched to assist an officer who had detained a subject on March 9, 2001. Solano met the four men, who identified themselves as Bureau of Land Management Agents, in the desert where they were detaining 10 to 15 juveniles.

The men told Solano the juveniles were in possession of alcohol and were trespassing on BLM land. The men said they had already searched the juveniles' vehicles, according to court documents. According to Solano, the men indicated they still needed federal law enforcement training when questioned.

No one was charged as a result of the stops by the alleged impersonators. The four men have not yet been arraigned.

(C) 2002 Daily Egyptian via U-WIRE

Freelance Photographer or Wannabe?

This information was submitted to us through our forums:

This guy was a freelance news photographer here in Los Angeles. His wife left him and he had a mental break down on another forum. He started talking crazy and, if I remember right, contemplated or tried to commit suicide. From his latest posting his is doing much better. I don't see why a news photographer, in some of the worst anti law enforcement neighborhoods, would want a Crown Victoria let alone install rear amber lights. I'd think an Expedition or Tahoe would be better suited for carrying all that camera equipment.

This brings up several good points. There is only one reason for someone to setup a CVPI like this, to look "official" as in looking like a law enforcement official. Some might think it's just a guy putting lights in an innocent vehicle. However, you cross a line when you take a retired/former police cruiser and put lights in it that imitates equipment the police would most likely use. There is only one reason to do such a thing and that is to confuse the public into thinking you are something you are not, which is a form of mental illness. Thank you for the submission.

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Stay tuned for next week as we roll out the last update to the TAMSAR series and some special photos of the vehicle used to commit the crimes we talked about along with numerous news articles detailing the events of the situation.

TAMSAR, Part 1

From Brian B.,

Just like child molesters have a deeply ingrained defect causing a compulsion to recidivism, I submit that the hard-core impostors too are subject to the same incurable salacity.

With the one-year celebration of Police Posers, comes the five-year anniversary of the arrest of perhaps the most wildly known Internet impersonator: Jaime Andres Ponce De Leon, and his preposterous TAMSAR group.

Section I: History

It all started around 1998 or so. An unabashedly flamboyant character attacked with voracity nearly every emergency service related internet forum known in the small circles of the time. Posting usually under his own name, Jaime Ponce De Leon wove a tapestry of lies surrounding his qualifications, exploits, affiliations and authority. His sheer vociferousness on forms such as the early eLightbars.org, Fire-EMS.net, Mil-Veh.org, JeepFourms.net, and others led to a strong reputation. This coupled with Ponce de Leon's affability and cunning knowledge of the field, misled hundreds of bona-fide law enforcement officers, firefighters, SAR coordinators, paramedics and others into believing his tales. More so, they supplied him with access to secondhand emergency equipment, enabling his later criminal activities.

Ponce de Leon sure did make a name for himself, quick to post stories of the volunteer group he founded. However, TAMSAR, an acronym for Team Alpha Medical Search And Rescue's authority or official charter existed only in his mind. Over time, this evolved into written accounts of the group's acquisition of several surplus CUCVs (military-spec. Chevrolet K-5 Blazers). These vehicles were supposedly tasked with the enforcement of "underage drinking" that was taking place in desert parties out on the sandy plains of Dona Ana County, New Mexico--which partially surrounds El Paso, Texas. After 9/11, he claimed that his organization had teamed with the federal Bureau of Land Management to provide homeland security along the remote stretches of these borderlands under a feigned status as "deputized" federal agents.

Shortly thereafter, Ponce de Leon, who was an Explorer Scout through high school, headed off to college at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. While there, he began recruiting a couple of friends to accompany him on his forays along the back roads in the desert. Paul Bunt of El Paso, Douglas W. Dombrowski and Vernon E. Johnson of Las Cruces unknowingly bought Ponce de Leon's pitch and joined the make-believe TAMSAR group. The team, using Ponce de Leon's Jeep Cherokee would venture into the lands less traveled and harass travelers, campers and others partaking in recreation on public lands.

They had outfitted Ponce de Leon's Jeep with an assortment of red and blue flashing lights, a siren and radios that could communicate with the local sheriff's dispatch center. The group became brazen, stopping alleged speeders, calling-in license plate and registration checks over the police band, and requesting backup when encountering situations that ran out of control. Ponce de Leon's gift of gab allowed the men to initially dupe local law enforcement into believing that the TAMSAR group was operating under a federally-funded program.

To provide some substance to their activities, Ponce de Leon created a website for the team. It was chalk full of bloviating and other official-sounding jargon, disclaimers and warnings. Using the unrestricted, but little known .us domain, TAMSAR appeared to have an official web presence at http://tamsar.el-paso.tx.us (now defunct). This site had photoshopped images of their supposed vehicles bearing fake lettering and badges. It also solicited donations and illegally claimed that the group was a registered non-profit, and eligible to receive tax-deductible gifts in-kind.

The house of cards came crumbling down in October of 2002. An astute physician who lived in the remote Santa Teresa, NM area reported to police the suspicious nature of TAMSAR's activities when he and his wife were repeatedly stopped, harassed and detained. That man, Dr. John Haynes, noticed during one of these episodes that Ponce de Leon had flashed a generic EMS badge and not the federal law enforcement shield of which he was claiming to be an agent. Haynes then contacted authorities on a suspicion of police impersonation.

More reports began to filter in to the county sheriffs in both Dona Ana, NM and El Paso, TX. The FBI was contacted in a fear that this inexplicable display of impersonators was the harbinger of domestic terrorism. A special task force was deployed and after a yearlong investigation the homes and NMSU dorms of the group were raided. Indictments were served and Ponce de Leon the identified ringleader of the whole charade would face five counts of police impersonation, two felony counts of false imprisonment, and another felony for conspiracy.

Specifically, the following crimes were alleged against Ponce de Leon and accomplices as compiled in an AP wire story from November 4, 2002:

Dombrowski observed unknown subjects stealing beer from a local store in Santa Teresa and pursued and detained them in October 2001. Dombrowski then called for assistance from local law enforcement using a hand held radio. According to Sgts. Steve Calzada and David Keaton of the Sunland Park Police Department, when they arrived at the scene they observed Dombrowski in uniform detaining several people. According to the officers, Dombrowski identified himself as a Bureau of Land Management officer in his call for assistance.

In December 2001 Border Patrol Agent Larry Jones stopped the three men and Jaime Andres Ponce De Leon, the identified leader of the group, west of Santa Teresa. According to the report, the men were driving a Jeep Cherokee and identified themselves by name. Jones said the men were dressed in Battle Dress Uniform pants and had badges and hand held radios. According to Jones, the men told him they were law enforcement officers working underage drinking.

According to court documents, Dona Ana County Sheriff's Deputy Carlos Solano was dispatched to assist an officer who had detained a subject on March 9, 2001. Solano met the four men, who identified themselves as Bureau of Land Management Agents, in the desert where they were detaining 10 to 15 juveniles.

The men told Solano the juveniles were in possession of alcohol and were trespassing on BLM land. The men said they had already searched the juveniles' vehicles, according to court documents. According to Solano, the men indicated they still needed federal law enforcement training when questioned.

In a news conference in October 2002, District Attorney Susana Martinez reported:

The men stopped motorists for speeding or asked what motorists were doing in an area and requested identification. In one case last March, Martinez said, the four detained a group of 10 to 15 juveniles for underage drinking.

The others faced several misdemeanor counts of police impersonation but later all claimed in defense that they thought their actions were legitimate and were fooled into believing Ponce de Leon and the TAMSAR group were sanctioned by the BLM. Dombrowski and Johnson were volunteer firefighters in Dona Ana County and summarily dismissed from the department. In an interview with David Scully, Johnson's roommate at NMSU, he defends the others' actions as being manipulated by Ponce de Leon. Scully said the men viewed their work as a job, as something they were supposed to do and had authority to do. He also said the men thought that TAMSAR, really existed but were approached by Ponce de Leon to join.

According to Scully, the TAMSAR crew patrolled the desert and ran people off BLM land but did not stop anyone on the highways. The men stopped people from starting fires, detained underage teens drinking on BLM land, and questioned people they found on BLM land, Scully said.

Sadly, despite the conscientious work of the FBI task force and local law enforcement, the men were charged but never went to trial. Although public records exist that show Ponce de Leon and the others being arraigned, posting bail and other workings of the judicial system, justice was never served. In a strange twist of fate, the cases of most of the men were completely dismissed by a legal loophole. The records list this motion as a failure to prosecute within the statutory time limit given by New Mexico law. Regardless of caseload or burden, the state only has six months from time of arrest to bring the case to trial; this deadline was missed as the investigators continued to seek additional victims from the area...and the men went free. Only one of the men ever pleaded guilty to a crime, but court records show that the charge was later dropped by conditions of his probation. Ponce de Leon appears in two felony cases from Texas, but neither show resolution, other than receipt of a $1740.00 in fees from a kidnapping charge.

LINKS:

Felony kidnapping charge against Ponce de Leon from El Paso County Texas

Felony police impersonation charge against Ponce de Leon from El Paso County Texas

Misdemeanor police impersonation charges from New Mexico against Ponce de Leon

Careless driving charge against Ponce de Leon from New Mexico

It should be noted that he is driving on a suspended license and has a bench warrant out for his arrest on this charges as of 8/9/2007!

Stay tuned for updates to the TAMSAR story

Happy Birthday PolicePosers.com!

The actual day we went public was 09/10/06 but due to events and updates, I put it off until now. To mark this special day, Brian B. from our forums typed up a nice article to talk about the purpose of the site and the science of what we do here on policeposers.com.

From Brian B.,

PolicePosers is an internet site dedicated to the exposure and reduction of public safety impersonation. The activities which comprise impersonation often begin in a benign fashion, but as we have seen over the past year, can stretch frighteningly into the commission of felonies and facilitate violence against others. Often, we spotlight otherwise harmless juveniles (and those of a juvenile mindset) who have an unbridled infatuation with one or more of society’s emergency services. The saying “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” is often quite true with these folks who mock up their first car, (or subsequent jalopies) to portray whatever respective conveyance they lust after.

Although it has been argued that these kids have no mal intent, we have adopted a stance that the festooning of emergency lighting, blatant resemblance to police cars, display of uniform accessories and other forms of regalia dilute the authority and purpose of these devices. In turn, a subconscious skepticism now exists in the minds of the general public. “Is that a police car in my rear-view mirror, trying to make me pull over?”; “great... the EMTs are finally on scene, I don’t need to call 911 for this accident”; “those lights don’t mean anything important...anyone can have those”; “I don’t need to yield for them...they are just some reckless kids playing around with police lights” are all hypothetical statements an unassuming citizen may consider after the trust in the emergency services is shattered by an impostor.

Trust. That’s what it is all about from our standpoint. Whackers, wannabes, posers and impersonators chip away at the sovereignty and professionalism citizens place in their emergency services. Whether it is to disregard the signal of a construction crew’s warning light, beaconing of an approaching road hazard or to fail to yield right-of-way to an ambulance rushing a critical patient to an emergency room, the psychological effect pretend responders can have brings grave consequences.

Power. That’s often the latent motivation for the impostor and whacker alike. More often than not, those who find an obsession with the ersatz replication of police, EMS and fire/rescue affiliation suffer from some form of inferiority complex. These are people, typically white males in their youth, who have been marginalized by society. Whether it’s by an upbringing in poverty, awkwardness in social circles, malignment from their peers, or just a way to stand out and get attention, these persons idolize the power vested in society’s officials. The equipage of emergency lights and uniforms manifests itself in activities such as police scanner-chasing, providing unwarranted “motorist assistance”, membership in clubs with a pseudo-official monikers or finding employment on the fringes that affords similar actions, like in some security guard agencies or freelance news photography.

This is epitomized:

* in the glow of emergency lights activated in a dark parking lot

* from cautious stares from passing motorists who hesitate to pass a counterfeit emergency vehicle on the highway

* by the respect, and maybe the free fountain drinks, demanded when a fully-uniformed impostor, subversivley decorated security guard, or over-the-top “volunteer” patronizes a convenience store

* through the crackle of police scanners breaking squelch from the belts of these misguided characters while seated in a booth at a late night diner

* and most of all, by the heroic confabulations told to friends or romantic conquests by these misguided characters to bolster a shaky ego

The other extreme is those who use the authority of emergency signals, a quasi-official uniform or vehicle, (or even the hint of either) in the furtherance of a crime. Since the 1930s when a Southern California rapist and murderer tied a red handkerchief over his vehicle’s spotlight in order to gain the submission of victims, there have been those who sought to use a the power of law enforcement, and others in a position of trust, to enact their crimes. “Blue-light bandits” have been a problematic staple in criminology--and by the articles posted on this site-- show no trend of falling out of vogue. The heinous nature of these criminals is that they prey on our trust in public servants and disrupt the performance of the actual officer’s duties.

No data has been compiled to show the pervasiveness of this affliction in American crime statistics, but anecdotally, it appears in the news weekly. Pay attention to the RSS feeds that this site uses to compile content. Rabidjade, the webmaster, posts news clippings of such transgressions so often it is frankly disturbing.

For these reasons, this site stands at the vanguard. We aim to expose, rebuke, and de-glamorize those who partake in the impersonation and mockery of the emergency services. It is with great zeal that I wish to congratulate both Rabidjade and the loyal user base who have made this site possible. Best wishes for a prosperous future.

Stay tuned for an upcoming report on one of the internet's best known impostors...

Lack of 9/11 images on web site is “sacrilegious.”

Hello,

Being a volunteer fire fighter, I have always wondered why you don’t have anything on your web site dealing with WTC or 9/11. To strive to be a respected site you must respect those who have fallen for this country and I find offense that you don’t respect the 343 brothers we lost that day or the soldiers dying over in Iraq because GW wants the oil. Instead of picking on whackers all the time you should show some respect for the real thing and maybe you would gain their respect a little more. I almost think you don’t like the real thing since you don’t have anything on any part of your site that has anything to do with 9/11. Every day I remember the brothers I lost on that day and what I was doing when they gave their lives. I was in school at the time and have been a volunteer fire fighter for almost two years now and still feel the connection 6 years later. I have a triangle 9/11 sticker on every vehicle I have and we have them on every fire truck at the station. 9/11 is a day for remembrance of the brothers we lost and I hope that you post an update on your front page as I think the lack of any caring on your site is pretty close to being sacreligious towards the fire fighter community. I don’t agree with a lot of your stuff and this is just another thing we can disagree on also. You can post this letter because it is the same stuff a lot of us fire fighters think of you and your site.

Sincerely,

Steve H.

I received this letter two days ago. Out of respect, I didn’t choose to post it until today but I did mention it on our forums. Let’s look at the letter for starters, it’s well typed out and has a lot of thought behind it. However it is typical of some volunteer fire fighters who forget they are only volunteers and think they are full timers who live the dream. I’ll explain this in a bit but my response.

Sometimes I’m not the best at putting my thoughts and feelings into text but my post in the forums sums up my opinion/feelings on the 9/11 tragedy.

I got a letter the other day asking why I don’t have any of the “9/11” stuff mentioned on my web site. They went on to say it’s almost “sacreligious” not to have 9/11 mentioned on a public safety oriented web site. To be honest I do care but I have came to terms and have moved on. I don’t know anyone involved in the incident and and have never been to the areas. I never plan on going to those areas for the specific purpose.

In reality, I get tired of hearing about the day as it happened yesterday. Locally and abroad the volunteer departments plaster the 9/11 and FDNY stickers all over their POV’s and sometimes fire apparatuses. I see it a lot less on full time departments. I could understand it for about five years but after that it’s time to move on. I'm actually getting annoyed with people who have the stickers plastered all over their vehicles and equipment and make it a point to advertise them at the first chance they get. The same goes for web sites. I think it’s the same as those types who have “RIP Bo Ripley 08/03/81 - 01/09/01, We will always miss you” in huge letters on their back window. There’s a time to move on and remember in your own way. No need to let everyone and their family know how you remember in your way as to keep reminding him of the incident. I’ve seen full sized rear window murals on volunteer POV’s going on about 9/11. Sorry but those types are just screaming wannabe and “this makes me closer to the real thing.”

Maybe I have a twisted view but I've moved on and worry about issues that have a more recent impact and those that affect me now. 9/11 was tragic but most of us are different people now and this is almost a new generation. Katrina had a larger impact than 9/11 for this country (IMHO) and it’s largely forgotten now and date that it hit the coast was barely a blip on local news stations broadcasts this year. I’m not saying it is/was more important but it’s impact and actual event date is a lot closer (2005) compare to 9/11 (2001). I don’t know, I don’t mind the ceremonies as they are a tradition but the stickers, memorabilia, and drooling a lot of vollies sometimes do is getting a little thin.

One thing I have been noticing is the “probies” or newer volunteer fire fighters who were still in school when 9/11 happened jumping on the “remember our brothers” bandwagon. I personally find it irritating. They probably didn’t give it a second thought years later but now plaster the 9/11 stuff all over their equipment and vehicles to feel “one with their brothers” like they were there or around on a fire department at the time. I guess it’s hard for me to explain.

A forum member put it best what I honestly think of the people like the above email with the whole incident:

It is kind of like when the captain of the football team is killed and everyone at school is suddenly one of his best friends. Everyone jumps on the bandwagon of knowing him so well to be part. Just on a much larger scale.

I remember that day in my own way. I don’t dwell on it on a daily basis and think it is time for some people to move on. A lot of things the above types tend to forget is a lot more than 343 people died that day. There were people from all walks of life and all types of religions, races, genders, backgrounds, not just fire fighters and police officers. There were many hero’s that day but they didn't don a uniform that morning and rush off to the rescue. They went to work at their job in the WTC towers like most of us do and stepped up to the plate when the situation was needed. The fire fighters hopping on the band wagon never mention those nameless heros, they only repeat the phrase “remember our 343 brothers we lost that day.” Like the above mentioned, there are a lot of volunteer fire fighters who were still in school or otherwise, not fire fighters on that date. Although they share something in common, by being on a volunteer department across the country doesn’t automaticly make you “one” with the fallen fire fighters on 9/11/01 and plastering stickers all over everything you own doesn’t make you any closer.

I just ask that everyone remembers all who passed away on that day and those who are serving our country as a result of it.

A little story on “Amber Light Clubs”

This is a topic I have been contacted on a few times. “Amber Light Clubs” are more popular than they ever were and are only growing in popularity. For those who don‘t know what an ALC is, it‘s a club who focuses more effort and time on warning/emergency lighting on their personal vehicles than their mission or charter events and duties. A lot of these clubs started out with dedicated staff with their mission statement in mind. However with the evolution of society in the recent decades and the changing face of authority figures such as police and fire departments, the mission of these clubs has evolved as well. If you do an internet search on the name of one of these clubs, you will find most of their web sites have pages dedicated to their vehicle lighting. A search will also show you how these clubs will picture themselves with the real professionals. You will also notice they also go out of their way to say that their efforts were “appreciated” by the professionals when they were more of a burden or hindrance.

A quick look at any of these agency‘s web sites will tell you their true underline motivations. Usually a web site of an amber light club will be choked full of scraps that make them look more official such as links to government sites and government logos. Some go as far as to post “mission logs” to add content to their web sites. Most times these logs are no more than chest puffing for an agency who is trying to justify its existence in the modern world. The logs can be entertaining as these clubs forget their place in the world and go out of their scope of training or lawful activities and never realize it. One REACT group even recorded borderline illegal and dangerous law enforcement type activities conducted by their members along with a photo album of illegal lighting on their personal vehicles. The examples and the web site they sit on have been "sterilized" by the club due to the heat that their tactics brought on themselves a while back. If you have any questions or want to know the truth, ask on our forums.

Although these clubs aren‘t hurting anyone physically, they are confusing the general public with their duties. When these clubs show up at emergency events, people view them as a club who can help. Most of these clubs lack training that would be beneficial to any emergency event and rarely rehearse emergency situations. A lot of these clubs started out as communication backups to the real pros but have since evolved to other duties to keep them selves on the food chain. These duties are anything from Search and Rescue (SAR) to traffic control. Most times these clubs aren‘t trained to deal with the rigors of traffic control or the situations facing SAR work. Traffic control is more than blocking a lane of traffic and flipping your amber light show on and SAR is more than running into the woods yelling little Johnnie‘s name.

A true club doesn‘t need to advertise their light usage. A true club also doesn‘t need quasi police style titles and tactical type unit numbers that some clubs have utilized. If you are a communications club, you don’t need to do happy helper roadside assistance. If you are a SAR club, then you don’t need to do traffic control at the state fair. That‘s my opinion on the matter.

UPDATE 08/23/07: Due to the traffic generated by this site, the amber/red/blue/white light club I linked to in this article have banned me from their site. Hiding their shame one IP address at a time.

Ways to find out if a security guard is a wannabe cop.

Owns a retired police car.

Has law enforcement vehicle equipment in their personal vehicle that is never legally used.

Wears their badge in their wallet or has it in their pocket while off duty.

Always brings up “what if” fantasy law enforcement situations in conversations.

Keeps up on police related news and ignores everything else.

Tries to modify or otherwise change their uniform to look more police like.

Works an armed position and thinks unarmed positions are nothing like theirs.

Frequently talks about revenge, violence, and other methods of harm to those who offend or create mild conflicts in their life.

Obsesses over a situation when a law enforcement official is involved.

Tries changing or lying about their job title to reflect a position of power or closer to a law enforcement official. Especially on job applications and resumes.

Refers to law enforcement officials as a brother or brethren.

Will flock to a security company where the uniforms and equipment is more “police like”.

Likes to argue the differences (or lack of) between security and law enforcement.

Tries to imitate feelings on situations that a police officer would have on situations such as crime, criminals, and the legal system.

Uses titles or ranks when addressing anyone who has them when off duty.

Is offended when titles and/or ranks are not used when addressing them when on or off duty.

Suffers from narcissism.

Always talks about what the local police are doing as they are best friends.

Demands to be called an “officer” and is offended when called a “guard”.

Carries a scanner around with the local police frequencies programmed in when off duty.

And a list from Brian B.

Employ trickery to fool the public into thinking they are cops.

Possess “K9 units”, imitation police cars, and flaunt outrageous tactical items as if they were posing for a Blackhawk catalog photoshoot.

Use subversive words that are commonly associated with LE-- “AGENT”, “AGENCY”, “AUTHORITY”, “EMERGENCY”, “ENFORCEMENT”, “DEPARTMENT”, “PATROL”, “PROTECTION”, “RANGER”, “RESPONSE”, “TACTICAL”, “TASK FORCE”, “TRAFFIC”, plus quazi-LE acronyms like S.W.A.T. etc. on patches, badges and vehicle markings.

Push the limits of emergency vehicle lighting. Use off colors like green, purple, white when unregulated. May even display red/blue depending on lax enforcement by local LE or an antiquated traffic code.

Attempt traffic stops, run RADAR and boot cars.

Mount a POLICE INTERCEPTOR badge on their pursuit-rated Kia.

Restore a city-surplus, jalopenous rustbucket with 180k miles to its former glory as a “cruiser".

Install a laptop and pretend it is an MDT. “That's not Solitaire, it's my gambling enforcement application.”....

Install a dashcam.

Drive said vehicle with Unity post-mounted spotlights in the ‘up’ position.

Obtain vanity license plate beginning with G-and-some-numbers (in states that have G-plates for government vehicles). Otherwise, put “Unit Number” on vanity plate.

Have more crap on their Batman belts than years on the job.

Appoint themselves unreal ranks. Like three full bird colonels in a company of four employees.

Refer to colleagues by their “Unit Number”.

Interlace police codes into conversations. “I love my boss. He is so 10-8.”

Wear extra crapola on an issued uniform: shiny whistle and chain, collar brass, and various pins of no significance.

Blouse 5.11 or similar poser tactical pants into “Magnum” combat boots.

Own a Mag Light with over 3 D-cells in capacity. You know, the ones that are like three feet long.

Find fringe employment in lights & siren funeral escort services.

Wear their uniform--or parts of it--during off duty hours.

Storm Spotting first, Whacker Roadside Assistance second....

This week we have an interesting update. As you will read later, some people are so far out of the reaches of reality that there is no hope. The topic person in this week's update is one of those people. From when I received this web site link Tuesday night, I have been shocked at what some find to be cool and neat and how much lighting abuse has hit this country. The person in question is a self proclaimed "storm spotter". The fact is it appears this guy spends more time looking for roadway incidents to use his lights at than chasing the occasional storm.

As far as I could tell and from what he says, his vehicle has wig-wags, dash light, flashing clear lights in his grill, LED lights on his lower spoiler, rear deck flashing low beams and a clear strobe. This is in addition to his radio equipment and radar detector. Now some might think that isn't so bad but the truth is these lights have no relation or value to storm spotting. This vehicle setup is a great example of lightings being apparently installed and used by someone who doesn't have the training or proper experience to use such tools.

Now if you search this link, you will see numerous pictures of his vehicle using the lights. If you pay close attention, it seems this whacker spends more time on scene taking pictures of his vehicle with it's blinkies going rather than dealing with the situation at hand. A good example is the post under the date "02/22/07" where in the course of his mission to block traffic and use his lights to move a 10lbs chair out of the roadway. In the time it would have taken him to flip on his blinding show and take pictures of it, he could pulled to the shoulder like a common citizen, moved the chair, got back in his car and left. In true whacker fashion, it appears he is more worried about creating a hazard with his lights where people will see him than using common sense in situations. If you take a look at post "04/29/07", it appears he shows another example of his untrained nature and disrupts an accident scene making it harder for the real professionals to investigate what happened.

I could go on all but that gives you the general idea. This is the stereotypical whacker who goes out and looks for dangerous jobs to justify turning their lights on, even for one to two minutes. Trained citizens and professionals know that lights are a tool and should be used WHEN NEEDED, not when you think the cool factor comes into your life. A police officer doesn't look for calls to respond with his lights to and most fire fighters don't drive with lights and sirens blaring whenever their truck is on a street because an emergency "might" pop up. It's common sense.

If you still have your doubts about this guy having an obsession using his lights, then take a look at why he has a blog. For incident recording? No. To record how he is helping people? Nope. He keeps the blog to keep a record of when he uses his lights, nothing more. Also not to end there, the blog is written out with details to make it look more official with the date/time style and "time on scene" entry with each post.

Is there a such thing as "too much" and a fan letter.

Hey,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm getting tired of your attitude on elightbars.org. I always see you on there bashing anyone who hints at using a amber light and quite frankly, I'm fed up with it. There is nothing wrong with having any lighting on your personal vehicle as long as it's in the limits of the law. The straw was you picking on the dude who has the plow truck. What the hell if he wants to use all the damn lighting in the world, its his right and he shouldn't have to get attacked by idiots like you for doing that. His safety is in mind and all you care about is the fact he might have one more light than what you want him to have. I bet you never worked in a road hazard situation where you depended on lights for your life.

Don't be a hater because you can't use lights yourself, it's not their fault that you are limited both in lights and mentally. Idiots like you are why people on boards like that get lynch mobbed when they interest in using legal lights. Yea, I said legal because most states allow amber on any vehicle. I'm sorry it's not like communist Russia where you can only have on your car what the government wants you to have. I bet you wish lights were outlawed and no one had them but cops and fire fighters. Well it isn't so get over yourself and get a life loser. There is no such thing as too much unless your head is up your ass like you seem to show. What if someone wants to have 50 damned lights, it's not your job or anyone else's to judge them. You think your a hot shot because of your little web site and the 5 photos you took of the whacker in a wal-mart parking lot. I bet you pay your friends to reload your page so your stats go up and you can sleep better at night thinking you are a ubber elite web master. elightbars and a light of other sites would be cool if people like you weren't around to pick on newbies who have a question about there amber light setups. Like I said, who the EDIT cares about what they have on their vehicles, its not hurting you is it? Also I ran spell check so you can't make me look like an idiot like you to other people who send you emails. I bet you still screw my email up so you can be the cool one when you rag on my email. loser.

I replied to this person and my email was bounced back. Apparently they used an anonymous email service. I guess they called me an idiot while being a coward, good poetic justice.

The above email mentions a thread where a snow plow operator thinks 12+ lights will be better than anything less than that. The issue has to do with the quantity of legitimate amber lighting for professionals who use the light in their line of work. To most people this could be a moot subject since amber lighting is an overlooked and abused color for the most part and people have just accepted this. I've always viewed that amber lighting is a needed color to cover the gap of emergency professionals and the common citizen. Not every need for a warning device is an emergency and this is where the amber color lighting steps in. However, like most lighting, moderation is key and too much of it can be harmful to it's awareness and effectiveness. This basic rule of science is lost on some and they hold the twisted consensus that there can never be too much of a good thing. Now days the public has become numb to warning and emergency lights and the people who use them use this as an excuse that more lighting is better. In my opinion this is the wrong direction to go. The public in my opinion has lost the respect for the lighting colors in general and adding more lights is not going to help the situation and will only give the users the mindset that they are more invincible with their added lights. Now back to our amber lighting brethren, they are becoming accustom of this mindset also.

As you see in the email, some even take offense when you question the amount of lighting someone has. For the amber light user, it's not a question of quantity but rather quality and placement. The thread that was mentioned in the letter mentioned the user wanted to install lights in the grill on his plow truck. Being I worked around plows for a period of time, this is a wasteful place for any lighting that's used during plowing. Any type of grill lighting will probably be overpowered with headlights at night time anyways. Most plows in this area suffice with a single 360 degree beacon or mini light bar, in amber of course. You are warning surrounding drivers of your presence. You aren't asking for them to yield or telling them another message. If everyone yielded to the snow plow, then the plow would have a lot more obstacles than a simple curb or light pole. Adding more lights to any situation will bring more confusion. One thing nice about a single light source is there is no premeditated direction of travel indicated the lighting as you might find with tail light flashers, wig wags, grill and deck lights. It's simple science when you see grill lights, you think the vehicle is coming towards you or moving forward. Same science with rear deck lights as you might think the vehicle is going away from you. A plow truck will make several back and forward passes while plowing a single parking lot. Having dash lights, grill lights, and rear deck light might confuse the average motorist in which way the plow is going without spending a second or two watching it with their own eyes off the roadway in front of them.