PolicePosers.com

This is another one of those subjects popping up more and more on message boards: volunteers who quit or resign from their departments, but refuse to give up their lighting on their POV. While this is a small topic, it is an interesting one that has our interest.

The story starts with someone who has invested a lot of time and money into their lighting setup, the lights more than likely conform to their state laws for volunteer POV lights and their permits, although for one reason or another they have to move on from their volunteering hobby. Then the dreaded fact of life comes up, that the lights must go. The former volunteer fights this choice for awhile, and ends up deciding for some reason or another, they are just going to keep them.

What is their motivation? Mainly it is whackeristic intentions; excuses we heard so far stretch from “I am a trained fire fighter/EMT/whatever and might need them” to “you know, because I can.” As we say, we aren’t against people using lights when it is needed and lawful; however people who think they are entitled or it is their right to do so due to their past we are against. Either these types are cast out of their department due to their behavior or they are moving, and don’t want to move on from their flashy light show to live the life of a “normal” civilian. They evolve from a legitimate lighting user, to a whacker, the moment they leave their respective department. Just like a former police officer doesn’t wear his populated duty belt or a former member of the military wearing their class A uniform everywhere they go.

So to wrap up this week’s update, know when to call it quits and to leave behind the dream. Lights are tools that should only be used by those trained, certified, and who use them lawfully and ethically.

While we cover a lot of topics on the whacker and wannabe epidemic, some topics are on the fringe but still interesting. This is one of those topics. Where this one started is deep in the FCC rules it says anyone can transmit on a public safety owned radio frequency if there is an emergency that requires attention and/or help. Like a lot of rules, this is one of those that are there in case something happens but is rarely, if ever used due to the other modes of communication around now days. Now for the most part we have cell phones, land line based phones, or even people who are certified to handle emergencies to relay the information for us.

Like lighting laws, 99% of the public doesn’t know nor do they care with what they can get away with. Probably the same part of the population doesn’t know about this long forgotten rule that we discussed above from the FCC. Now this is where our topic of the week gets interesting. In the past we have heard of licensed amateur radio operators (hence known as “hams”) modifying their ham radios to talk on public safety bands (sections of frequencies devoted to ONLY the public safety sector). Their rational is they do this in case they need to talk to the professionals to report and emergency. While it is not illegal to do this, some have to wonder why with other legal and less intrusive means of communication available. Some have even gone as far as to transmit on these frequencies to hear the repeater on the other end acknowledge the transmission. Like impostors and select wannabes, they get the thrill like a little kid who got into the cookie jar and did something bad. As they giggle to themselves, we shake our heads in disbelief.

To go a step further, some look for reasons to abuse this privilege. While it be volunteering at some amber light club in a pseudo-self described official capacity or being a vigilante crime stopper.

We recently found where a user that goes by the name of “REACT” on a popular lighting forum and they went into detail on why they have these frequencies programmed into their China radio and why they insist they will use them in any emergency:

“I am perfectly legal having it programmed with the local Sheriff, Fire, and EMS channels and repeaters, as well as their CTS/DCS tones, and I do! Even on the scene of an emergency, it can be vital to be able to communicate to emergency personnel. For example:

Say I am closing a road to traffic for a vehicle accident with injuries. The firemen are on the scene attempting to push/lift a car off of a woman. A car comes up to me with a drunk driver inside, who drives right past me. I can grab my radio, touch two buttons, and be saying “WATCH OUT” into the mic. Believe me, I’ve heard firemen, police, and EMS do the same thing when they see a car barreling up to the scene, “Heads up, car!” While it may not be the best option (depending on how far from the scene I am blocking traffic), it is definitely viable in a lot of cases. If someone is on scene and hurt, and myself and others are there in response, you better believe that the situation is classified as an emergency.”

Later in their post:

“Say I am on a county road and I see a telephone pole fall in high winds, right inside of a house, sparking an instant fire. I can simply call in on my GMRS designated REACT frequency to alert the central dispatcher at the sheriff’s office of the situation, but if my REACT repeater were offline, or if I were not a member of REACT, and just a local ham, you’d better believe I would be on the fire frequency for my county contacting the dispatcher. I’m not going to drive 10 miles to try to find a pay phone that I think might be located at such and such gas station–if the cord is still attached and it’s not jammed with a quarter. I’m not going to go to the house next door and knock and wait on someone to answer and give me their portable phone. I don’t have a cell phone, and there are many places in my county where cell phone gets no service. I’m going to act as quickly as possible, because those situations warrant use of ANY frequency of radio I can possibly use at that particular point in time with ANY power level.”

So we can gather from this spectacle that instead of finding other easier ways of communication, we will just bend that FCC rule to our perception of it and use it? If you ever worked on a fire ground or a static law enforcement scene, you would know how confusing someone yelling “watch out” would be over the radio. Add this to the fact they are operating on scene with no direct communication with the incident commander and you have disaster waiting.

In the end there are laws on the books that are there for the very rare emergency, not an excuse for someone to play with the officials. A lot like lighting law abuse by some, others see this as a way to feel closer to the real thing without being a part of the real thing in an official capacity. There are a lot of tools or laws that are there for emergencies but we shouldn’t be going out of our way to find ways to use them. Be normal, use training and common sense in emergency situations.

http://www.badgeworld.com/index.php?p=product&id=2194&parent=163

A member of our staff recently found this jaw dropping impostor kit. Included is a complete outfit made to look like something official along with badge and official looking ID.

Provided on the page is a mostly bogus advertisement saying people need this junk to be better citizens for their “duty to country.” They reinforce this with various quotes from officials, statistics (some true, some stretched) and other fear tactics listed throughout the advertisement. We also viewed the infamous “CCW” badge being advertised through the site so our hopes are low for their concerns for impostors.

If you sit down and think about it you would realize no one would use this for the intended purpose. Kits like this give easy access to impostors to commit crimes with very little shopping for their equipment. Add that to the false advertising that gives a sense of power to anyone buying this stuff and you might have a problem.

Something we have been seeing very recently is vigilante impostors. These are the type that go out and impersonate law enforcement in the name of justice, or more likely they own justice. For the most part they are harmless but their very existence is to confuse the public into following the law. While there is a large following of people who think confusion is cool and harmless, we don’t see it that way and view it as unethical and wrong. Vigilante impostors take to the roads in retired police vehicles and illegal lighting and stop motorist that make them mad and warn them to be better. In the past few months we have seen more than a few different stories about older males performing these actions. The main reason for them to break the law was their opinion on their local law enforcement wasn’t doing enough. So they felt the need to go out and take matters into their own hands without any training or cooperation from the local law enforcement. The latest article we found on this phenomenon the alleged impostor even call the real police for backup on his cell phone and was caught this way.

So in essence, don’t go out and play cop when you aren’t asked to. On top of that don’t do it illegally using your own equipment. If you are unhappy with your local law enforcement, talk to them about it or even your local city/county government. Also see if your area has a neighborhood watch program or even a police auxiliary program. There are better ways to deal with personal disagreements on how the law is enforced other than impersonating and breaking the law to fight crime in your own way.

You have seen them at one time or another, escort whackers. We aren’t talking about just the wide or hazardous load escort vehicles (it is a legitimate job) but the whackers among them. With the lighting market more affordable and easier to obtain, some escort whackers have been brazen enough to cross the line from legitimate use to too much. We here at PolicePosers.com keep tabs on several venues that are either friendly to whackers/wannabes/impostors or embrace them with open arms. The escort whackers have been stepping into the spot light in recent times with their prolific abuse and overuse of lighting and even illegally or illegitimate lighting.

While the line of illegal and illegitimate lighting is different among different groups, we will highlight what we see here. A few escort whackers forget their presence is a passive one, mainly there for warning other roadway motorists of the potential hazard they are escorting. While this is what a lot of escort employees expect, others think they own the road they drive on and make attempts at confusing or intimidating motorists to pull over or otherwise yield to the escort service and/or the load they are escorting. Some examples are illegally colored lighting, flashing OEM lights on the escort vehicle itself (Tail light Flashers, Head Light Flashers), or even aggressive tactics such as using the shoulder of the road to pass and so forth. More than once our members have witnessed escort vehicles set up to look like in service police cruisers with lighting, graphics, and even uniforms.

So where is this all going? As time passes, REAL emergency lighting users will need to increase their vehicle lighting more and more to get the public’s attention and keep their response times low. One of the reasons that can be attributed to that is those who don’t need what they have (too much/non-needed lighting) and abuse what they have (treat their amber-only lighting as emergency response lighting). We are talking about overzealous whackers just like what we described above who stretch the limit of what they need in terms of lighting and how many laws they break to get their desired target affect. While most hazardous/wide load escorts are great people with proper lighting setups, some aren’t and makes the rest look bad.

With the surge of people who want to pretend to be something they are not increasing, so are those trying to profit from it. This time we will explore the “Concealed Weapons Permit” Badge or CCW (Carry Concealed Weapon) Badge.

While we are not against the lawfull practice of CCW or firearms in general, we are against these badges circulating in the public. What is the advertised purpose of the CCW badge you might ask? Here’s an example from an auction advertisement that is selling these badges:

So basically in the small possibility you have someone held at gunpoint and a law enforcement officer shows up, you flip out your badge and all is “OK”? Highly unlikely. While the advertisement makes it sound like a common thing, some quick searching could not find any stories that remotely resembled this scenario. The proper things to do in a scenario where a legal firearm owner interacts with law enforcment is highly debated and unique to each situation such that they exceed the scope of this article. There is however one hard and fast rule- NEVER, under any circumstance, point any firearm at a law enforcment officer. What we are going to focus on is seeing if the CCW badge is really intended for it’s advertised purpose or is intended for someone who wants to feel important without the necessary training and certifications to do it the right way.

The CCW badge business is becoming so lucrative that companies will customize any badge to say whatever you want and be of any design with any seal on it that you wish to have.  So what is the real purpose of “customizing” your very own CCW badge that means nothing to the only people who you intend to use it with (LEOs)? Well, we here at Policeposers.com believe that they are catering to the wannabe crowd and to those who think having a CCW badge also gives them the authority to perform law enforcement duties. Many wanabees fail to understand that a badge is the symbol of the authority granted an officer by the government, and not the source of it.

So next time when you see someone carrying a CCW badge, you will probably wonder “why?” Most CCW permit holders are level headed and don’t need badges, shields, or any other device to further exemplify their authority. In most cases having a CCW permit makes you want to hide your weapon from the general public. Wearing a badge on your belt (as we found to be a recommended tactic by some sites selling these badges) doesn’t do anything but create confusion about what people perceive you as. Wannabes get their rush from the confusion and that is our point here. So in the end folks, leave the badges to the public safety sector and Halloween costumes for children and live your life like regular people who happen to be CCW permit holders.

A recent alleged impostor of sorts was banned from a popular lighting forum. Enforcement_Officer signed up and claimed to be on par with law enforcement from his very first posts and his profile occupation. Throughout his short span on TLB, he made several statements that others took as he thought he was a law enforcement officer. While this supposed string of claims went on, others took notice and began to question Mr. Enforcement_Officer.

With his whacker pride posted on Youtube in several videos, the dam broke and a TLB member called the possible impostor out in his own dedicated thread. While some defend the Enforcement_Officer, others joined in on questioning the motive of his actions. To prevent further issues, the thread was locked and shushed away to a hiding spot and the author was suspended due to his actions. The author is also an upstanding member of the policeposers.com forums. While Enforcement_Officer was flying under the radar on TLB to most users there, we were actively watching him along with many others like him who populate message forums and web sites possibly living a lie. If you know of any others like this person, we would be more than happy to hear about it.

This video was brought to us by the creator. From the video description:

Chris Novy talks about the use of emergency lights for Skywarn storm spotters. This is from his presentation on March 14, 2009 at the National Storm Conference in Colleyville Texas. This is the best presentation I have seen so far on what to do and not to do when storm spotting, this is just a small segment. Probably the most important part the use of flashy lights on your vehicle.

The video is an interesting watch on what the true Skywarn members think of emergency lighting on spotter vehicles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tjGJiRPCuE

Whackers and Wannabes are nothing new on internet message forums. We see new ones pop up from time to time with various ways of coming out of the closet to other forum members on their whackerness or unhealthy obsession of lightings, sirens, and the power they think it brings them. While these whackers and wannabes start their journey of exploitation differently, they all have one common goal. That goal is to be accepted by fellow light users as one of their own although the major different between them is the legitimate use of lighting and mental state the lights bring both parties. So we here at PolicePosers.com have came up with a simple check list to see if someone who is post might be a whacker or wannabe:

1. They start the post off saying they aren’t a whacker or wannabe. They do this due to the guilt they already feel deep inside but say this disclaimer in the hopes people won’t judge them as such.

2. Their first post is about their obsession in some way. This could be a retired police package vehicle with lighting, a large collection of lighting in their bedroom. They could even be bragging up their accomplishments such as being a happy helper, self appointed citizen patrol or even a scanner call chaser.

3. They talk whole heartedly about something that only officials use. This could be a vehicle, lighting, or even duty gear including firearms. Maybe they work it in as a comparison to their own equipment or what they have on their wish list.

4. If you are lucky, they might slip up and mention using their lighting in a borderline illegal way. Events like this usually include “lighting someone up” or tooting their public safety grade electronic air horn at them. Mostly likely the thread will center around their lighting use and how it made them feel. Die hard whackers and wannabes will usually slip up thinking their new found lighting brethren will rejoice in the illegitimate use of emergency lighting.

These threads, depending where they are posted, will have various outcomes. Some message boards live behind the blind mentality of “pat their back because people do it for me” and will prop up the coming out of the closet whacker on their shoulders and defend him. Other forums will ignore the whacker and let him whittle away once their arousal of showing off dies down. Then some forums will call it like it is, they are a whacker/wannabe thus equivalent to a mentally challenged window licker and emergency lights and sirens are tools, not toys.

If you spot a whacker or wannabe thread, we would like to hear about it. Before you compare yourself with one of the above and get offended, not everyone who matches some of the above is a whacker or wannabe. We only try to provide tools to assist in detecting them, the rest is up to the viewer to decide.

This was the rallying call heard recently on the Skywarnonline.com forums in a thread entitled- Skywarn members credibility could be risk. The call to arms was answered by several fellow storm spotters/chasers/foamers. They were upset over our posting of public domain obtained images showing various Skywarn members vehicles with various states of lighting obsessions. Within hours the thread was locked and then taken away to some hiding spot.

Contained in that thread was a plethora of complaining, whining, arm chair lawyering, and attempted investigations into policeposers creator’s personal history through the website host and domain. While none of those accomplished anything, it was funny how much effort people put into finding dirt on someone who questioned their motivation for lighting abuse. A common misconception of the whackers in society is that the creator runs this web site alone. Well, the website is coded by the creator and webmaster of policeposers, but the content is created and distributed by an advisory board or staff who work behind the scenes to bring to light the topics on the site. Want proof? Ask any staff member on our forums and they will repeat what we have said here.

Why are we posting this? Well, it’s simple, to illustrate the mentality of some people. The posted photos were found via reader submissions of the individual’s Photobucket.com accounts which are posted in the Public Domain-

“Photobucket.com Terms of Service
Proprietary Rights in Content on Photobucket.

6.1 Photobucket does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post on or through the Photobucket Services. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Photobucket Services, you hereby grant to Photobucket and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked “private” will not be distributed outside the Photobucket Services. Photobucket and/or other Users may copy, print or display publicly available Content outside of the Photobucket Services, including without limitation, via the Site or third party websites or applications (for example, services allowing Users to order prints of Content or t-shirts and similar items containing Content).”

“People like me need to use lights to keep our head with our body, aka OUR SAFETY!  People like you don’t care a damn about safety and try to press your narrow-minded and shallow agenda on all of those who are dumb enough to listen.”

“…CERTIFIED TO HAVE LIGHTS!”

“I can be crude and vicious but low life scum like you sometimes need it to get it through your thick Neanderthal skull.  I hope SKYWARN fails to see a tornado in your town and it kills you so those who volunteer for the community can be safe from your anti-safety selfish ramblings. …While you are in your house getting drunk and beating on your wife, WE are out there helping the weather forecasters bring news to those who need it.”

“If you post this in anywhere, I will sue you for harassment so don’t get any funny ideas.”

“Policeposers.com Legal Disclaimer

6. Any emails to policeposers@gmailDOTcom/admin@policeposersDOTcom, intended for, or in reference to the policeposers.com website become part of the policeposers.com collection and can be used at the webmaster’s discretion.

“Did I sound crude, sure I did to make a point you will pay attention to.”