TAMPA - A Tampa man who recently applied for the Tampa Police Reserves was arrested Friday morning amid allegations that he illegally used a fake silver badge, portable radios and flashing blue and red emergency lights.
Andrew Angel Romero, 25, of 10109 Enchanted Oaks Court in northwest Hillsborough County faces charges of impersonating a police officer, a third-degree felony, and with false use of a blue light, a misdemeanor.
As of late Friday afternoon, he remained in the county jail in lieu of $2,500 bail.
Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said witnesses called police after they saw Romero driving near Kennedy Boulevard and Occident Street in a 1992 Toyota Camry with blue and red lights flashing in the front windshield and rear windows. Durkin said some witnesses said they thought Romero was a real officer pulling them over.
Police stopped Romero after he drove into the WestShore Plaza parking garage off Kennedy Boulevard. Asked why he had the emergency lights, he said he used them "to help him get into traffic," Durkin said.
Detectives searched the car and also found portable radios, a silver badge similar to an authentic one and a color photocopy of a Tampa police patch attached to the driver's side visor, according to a police report.
Durkin said Romero recently applied to be a reserve police officer. A reserve officer is a citizen who volunteers as an officer and has full police powers - but only when working in the presence of a full-time paid officer.
"You've got to wonder" about Romero's motivation, Durkin said. "Was he using this stuff with plans to commit a crime, or did he just want to be an officer? Either way, it's trouble."
Police ask that anyone who saw Romero using the fake police items call 276-3504.
