With a flash of his Metropolitan Police badge murderer Wayne Couzens was able to get victim Sarah Everard into his car. The horrific way her innate trust of a police officer was abused has transformed many people in the capital’s relationship with the force, but it also raised a frightening question: ‘Would I know what an official card looked like?’
Couzens possessed a legitimate warrant card, but many others abuse the public’s trust with fakes. In October, images were released of ‘fake cops’ who dressed up in uniform to ‘search’ South London woman’s home and the following month a serial burglar who used a bogus warrant card to gain access to people’s homes was locked up .
READ MORE: Met police won’t investigate fake porn account pretending to be women’s activist
(Image: Met Police)
Shockingly, many of the tools used by these fraudsters are not acquired from dodgy retailers, they can be bought at recognised online outlets like Amazon. MyLondon found police badges, listed as props for fancy-dress costumes, that could easily be used for nefarious purposes.
But in order to find out whether Londoners believed they were convincing or not, we took to the streets around Hammersmith and asked people how they would react if someone showed them one of the Amazon-bought warrant cards?
Did Londoners find the card believable?
The eyes of the first woman we showed the card to widened when she saw it. Although we’d explained that we were journalists she was still confused by the badge. It was a powerful demonstration of just how much power the small metal emblem held. She was far from the only person who said that they found it believable.
“I would think you were a police officer,” another woman said when asked how she’d react to someone showing her the badge. “I’d stand and hear what you had to say and work out whether I need to be scared,” another added.
Two older women who MyLondon spoke to said that they would believe the card if shown it because “they knew no better”. One of them added that in the area of West London they lived a man had allegedly been robbing petrol stations dressed as a police officer and it concerned her that others could carry out similar crimes.
Even those who could see that the card was a fake said that if they were approached by someone with confidence they may still be taken in by it. “If it was someone random I probably wouldn’t question them on it just in case,” a young woman said.
Others found the badge less convincing, one man laughed and said it looked like “something out of a Christmas cracker” while others immediately spotted it was a fake. However, there was agreement from everyone MyLondon that it was “disturbing” that such products were for sale online. They said that it should be taken down and made illegal.
Amazon removes items
Between MyLondon purchasing the police warrant card and publishing this article Amazon removed the listing on its site. It is understood that the retailer is also in the process of removing the other types of police warrant card holders being sold on the platform.
Amazon said it had “very strict guidelines” about what third-party retailers, like the one selling the product purchased by MyLondon, were allowed to sell.
“Third-party sellers are independent businesses and are required to follow our selling guidelines when selling in our store,” a spokesperson for Amazon said. “Those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account.”
‘Cops say security guards look like police’
Former Metropolitan Police officer Graham Wettone pointed out that the type of products available to buy online that could be used to impersonate officers went well beyond fake police IDs.
“You can buy a police warrant card on Amazon, you can buy a belt kit, cuff pouch [and] CS spray pouches,” he told MyLondon. “I mean, you can all buy the stuff that makes you look like you’re either a plainclothes police officer or you’re off-duty.”
For Wettone the issue is not just about what is available to buy online it’s also about the uniforms private security firms are able to use.
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“You look at some security guards and they look virtually like cops. Even I [as an ex-officer] have to look twice to make sure – is that a police officer or a security guard? Because they look like they’re serving cops. The high-vis jackets with the checkered of bands look like police officers. But that’s [a question] for the legislators [and] the government to look at. Cops have been saying for years, there are too many, too many outside organisations looking like police.”
Have you been approached by someone pretending to be a police officer? Contact [email protected] with your stories
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*We made sure all the interviewees understood that we were journalists and not police officers.
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