Sheriff Warns Police Imposters

Sheriff Scott Walton sent out a warning this week to people who buy and use illegal red and blue lights in their personal vehicles.

"If we catch someone with red and blues we're going to take the lights and cite them," said Walton.

The Oklahoma Statues limit the use of red and blue lights to police and government vehicles and come specific exceptions such as tow trucks but lately there has been an up-tick in the number of private autos using red and blue lights. The penalty for having red and blue emergency lights in a private vehicle is up to six months in the county jail and a fine of up to $2,000.00

"These lights are easily available over the Internet," said Walton.  Walton spoke with representatives of local police supply stores and learned that the sale of red and blue lights is restricted by those shops to persons and organizations that can show a legal need for them.  "You can't just walk into a local police supply and walk out with these kinds of lights," Walton said.

Walton met with representatives of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol on Monday.  The OHP reported that there have been several occasions lately where troopers have found people driving with red and blue emergency lights.

"There's no reason for private people to have these kinds of lights," said Walton.  "Every now and then this problem raises its head and we want to make sure that people understand that if they try it in Rogers County, we're watching out and we're going to take action."

Walton said that in the past there have been horrible incidents of police impersonators victimizing the public.  Walton says that the new generation of emergency lighting is attractive to some people but that they need to know that it's illegal to operate these lights."

"Having the lights in your car is one thing," said Walton.  "If we find them we're going to take them and cite the driver. But, if those lights are turned on and even one person yields to what they believe is a police vehicle, the operator is impersonating a police officer and we're going to jail them on the felony charge."

Captain Mike McElhaney issued orders to every uniformed deputy to be on the lookout for people using emergency lights in private vehicles.  "When we take the lights we're going to give the drivers the option of taking them out themselves or we'll have them professionally removed at the owner's expense," he said.