|
?:reviewBody
|
-
Whether the accounts reproduced above really represent an actual true story and not one of those Internet stories that are passed on and on is unknown, but the main point that most readers have taken from them is undeniably not true: calling #77 or 112 from your cell phone will not connect you to emergency services no matter where you are, nor doing so connect you with emergency services even when your cell phone does not have an adequate signal to place outgoing calls. Although in a few states in the U.S. calling #77 on a cell phone will immediately connect you to that state's highway patrol, that code is far from universal. Some states use #77, but others use *55, *47, *77 or *HP, and some don't have any special code at all. Rather than frantically try to figure out which one will work in the area you're in, police generally recommend that the best approach is to get around the problem by trying 911 first: The phone number 112 is used as a global emergency phone number in a number of countries, primarily in the European Union. In some parts of the United States a call to 112 will roll over to the local 911 system, but since 112 is not implemented as a universal emergency number in the U.S., calling 911 directly is the better option. Some police agencies have even issued social media warnings advising the public not to call 112 at all, saying that the (idea) that calling 1-1-2 is somehow faster than calling 9-1-1 is utterly false. Regarding the scenario described in the examples at the head of this page, police advise motorists to immediately pull over when signaled to do so, suggesting those concerned about their safety keep their doors locked and crack their windows to speak with persons presenting themselves as officers of the law. They suggest sidelined drivers who are suspicious of their detainers' demands should request to examine the officers' photo IDs and ask them where they work, then place calls to 911 to verify their identities. While this would certainly be the right way to handle genuine police officers making bona fide traffic stops, this method may fail to protect motorists from the ill-intentioned. Real bad guys often carry guns, against which locked car doors and cracked windows would avail little by way of protection. The instance of rapists and murderers pretending to be police officers is not of epidemic proportions, but enough incidents of this nature have occurred that precautions are warranted. In 1948 in Los Angeles, Caryl Chessman successfully robbed couples and sexually assaulted a number of women in California after first fooling them into believing he was a police officer by flashing a red light at their vehicles. (Though often he approached parked cars this way, in at least one case he managed to pull over a car that was driving on Pacific Coast Highway.) His method of approach earned him the nickname of The Red Light Bandit. Chessman was executed on a kidnapping charge in 1960, but only after gaining fame for writing three books while in prison (most notably Cell 2455 Death Row) and becoming the focus of the then nascent movement to abolish the death penalty. Since then others have used similar ruses to isolate their victims. More recently, in 1997 Arkansas was plagued by its blue light rapist who assaulted three women after first luring them to the side of the road with the help of a police-style blue light mounted on his car. Robert Todd Burmingham was sentenced in 1998 to 80 years in prison for rape, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. In 2000, a Tampa woman was sexually assaulted by a man who had put a flashing blue and red light atop his car and motioned her off the road as if he was a police officer. After she admitted she had been drinking, he offered to drive her home; she got into his car, and he took her to an isolated location where he raped her. That case is still open. Someone who has taken to impersonating a police officer for nefarious purposes is counting upon his intended victim's unquestioning cooperation. Because he appears in the guise of a trusted authority figure whose commands must be obeyed, he expects automatic reaction to kick in even if it overrides common sense. That could prove a fatal error to make. In 1996 Governor Pataki of New York issued an executive order to prevent unmarked state police cars from stopping motorists for routine traffic violations, citing a growing number of cases around the country in which criminals trap their victims by posing as police officers. A March 2002 version of the story changed the girl's name from Lauren to Lisa. An October 2003 version moved the action to Australia. Once again, 19-year-old Lauren barely escaped disaster, but she did so by using the No. 112 feature on her cell phone to summon help. A July 2004 version shifted the story to Canada, but in this instance Lauren dialed *677. (The number *677, aka *OPP, is the non-emergency cell phone caller line of the Ontario Provincial Police.)
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}