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Last updated on Thursday, May 21, 2015
(JACKSON CO.) - A Freetown teen was arrested early this morning and charged with impersonating a police officer.
According to a Jackson County Sheriff's Department news release, a driver reported being pulled over around 12:30 a.m. by an armed man in a black Kia passenger car who claimed to be a police officer.
The driver says the man was not wearing a police uniform and was not in a marked police car. The only visible law enforcement marking, he reported, was a sheriff's badge affixed to the man's belt.
The driver told deputies the man asked for his driver's license and registration. When the driver questioned the man, he told the driver he would let him go.
After the incident, the driver located the black Kia outside a home in Freetown. A deputy was given a description of the man and arrested 18-year-old Joshua K. Morris, at the home.
Authorities say Morris stopped vehicles using a phone app that simulates police lights. Morris was also in possession of a BB/air gun and a replicated sheriff's badge.
The sheriff's department reports two confirmed incidents since May 14 in which a young man in a black Kia stopped vehicles, pretending to be a police officer.
Police say in order to legally stop a vehicle in an unmarked police car, the officer must be in uniform. The only way a plain clothed officer can legally stop a vehicle is if they are in a marked police car.
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