Madison – A bill that would equalize the penalty for impersonating police officers, fire fighters, and other emergency personnel passed the state Assembly Tuesday. It raises the current penalty from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class I felony, the same penalty as impersonating a utility employee or other public official.
Representative Wichgers released the following statement:
I remember hearing the news of the political assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband on June 14th, just four months ago today. What people may – or may not remember – is that the gunman who killed them was disguised as a police officer. Earlier that night, the perpetrator gained the trust of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, who opened their door in the middle of the night because they saw flashing red and blue lights and trusted the person who knocked. They were then shot, and the disguised officer went on to the Hortman’s home.
More and more, we are seeing brazen individuals impersonating law enforcement. It happened recently in my district, and it has happened in New Berlin, Milwaukee, Greenfield, Sun Prairie, and Germantown. It’s a particularly harmful crime. It violates public trust. It confuses legitimate law enforcement efforts and it often involves other serious crimes as we saw in Minnesota. I am grateful to my colleagues, including those on the other side of the aisle, for unanimous support of this bill today, and to Sen. Jesse James in the Senate for authoring this bill. I urge the Senate to move this bill forward to protect our first responders.
