The woman who had been pulled over by the suspect also took off before the officer had a chance to talk to her.
After contacting the Kansas Highway Patrol, it was discovered that there were no troopers working in the area of Harry & I-135, and no trooper had called in a traffic stop in that area. It is policy for them to call in their stops.
The suspect is described as a heavy-set white male, dressed in Kansas Highway Patrol attire, with the uniform fitting rather loosely. He was driving a navy blue Ford Crown Victoria, with low profile red lights in the back window.
"This is concerning to us, obviously. Anytime you have someone portraying themselves as a police officer and actively stopping vehicles, we are suspicious as to why they are doing this," says Sgt. Brunscheen. "First of all, they are using police power to seize someone and stop them on the street. The driver of this vehicle happened to be female, so there is always concerns it could get bad if there was any other criminal intent with impersonating a police officer."
There have been two other reports of someone impersonating Kansas law enforcement in recent weeks. The first happened July 1st near Kansas City. Investigators say a man driving what appeared to be a state patrol car pulled over an 18 year old woman, and sexually assaulted her.
The second reported case happened July 23rd in Kingman County. A similarly described person pulled over a man in the billed of the afternoon. The victim was handcuffed, his car was searched, then he was let go.
It is not known if those two instances are related to Saturday morning incident.
Authorities say if you are being pulled over by an officer, but you can take steps to ensure is actually law enforcement. "If a police officer, whether they are in a marked or unmarked car pulls you over, pull over." says Sgt. Brunscheen. "But if there is ever any concerns, the individual in the car can call 911, and dispatch will know if the officer has stopped a car in that area or not."
