Why'd the the officer ask me if I had a badge?

Question

I was pulled over last year by a police officer, I was on my way home from my security job so i was in uniform. the officer asked me if I had a badge why ?

Just something I've always thought about.

Answer 1

He wanted to see if his looked better.

Answer 2

If you were another police officer with a badge, they probably would have given you a courtesy and just let you go without asking for anything else (like drivers license, insurance, etc.)  They generally won't "warn" or "ticket" one of their own.

Answer 3

the officer may have thought you were just dressing up like a cop

Answer 4

He may of wanted to see proof of your job or thought you were a police officer. There were crimes where men have dressed up as officers and then would pick up people and would them murder or rape them.

Answer 5

There are laws in most states about what can legally be on a security badge and uniform...there's a chance he was curious if your stuff was legal.  Most cops are pretty clueless about what's legal for private security companies to do, though.  

He might have thought you were a cop from somewhere else.  

My husband never gets tickets when he gets pulled over in his security uniform...he does in-house for a place that has a lot of events that they hire off-duty cops for, and so he usually knows whoever's pulling him over.  Even when he gets pulled over by the state troopers though, they don't give him tickets.  He says a lot of cops think that all security guards want to be cops, so they go easy on them.

Answer 6

Some states require licensed security officers to wear a state-approved badge and/or photo ID card.  Police Officers would generally only ask you that if you were on property they thought you were trespassing on even though you worked there.  I have seen that on a number of occasions.



Asking you if you had a badge during a traffic stop?  The officer probably saw the military-style uniform and mistakenly thought you might be a fellow police officer.  That's my guess.

Hope this helps!