Chicago, Illinois – A man arrested this week for allegedly impersonating a police officer has been doing it since he was 14 years old according to reports.
At a court hearing Friday following the suspect’s Wednesday arrest, a judge called the suspect a “danger to the community.”
Fox News reports that Vincent Richardson, 26, allegedly dressed in a full Chicago police sergeant’s uniform at least twice last month and again on February 3rd.
Richardson is accused of pulling over a vehicle in an unmarked car and searched the passengers.
Separately, he was allegedly seen searching for the source of reported gunfire and using a flashlight to get motorists to slow down their vehicles in the area.
Richardson, who works as a fleet manager, had somehow obtained a police radio, stun gun, baton, utility belt and police clothing as part of his scheme.
When Richardson was 14 years-old, he was arrested after working a full shift.
CBS 2 reports that in that incident, he drove a patrol car and helped arrest a suspect.
The incident went viral in 2009 when Richardson, then 14 years-old, showed up at the 3rd District station and convinced officers that he was from another district. The officers let him work a full duty patrol shift with them – in which he also even helped with an arrest – before they figured out what was going on.
In that incident, Richardson became known as “kid cop.”
Months later, Richardson played dress-up again – this time as a businessman who went to a Lexus dealership asking for a test drive. He ended up driving off in the Lexus and crashing it.
Unfortunately, his youth obsession hurt his real chances of wearing a badge when the kid cop was sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to buy a police uniform in 2013.
Recently, Richardson allegedly told local security guards that he has been a police officer for six years and had just been promoted to sergeant.
