What is personating a peace officer?

Personating a peace officer is covered under s.130(1) of the Criminal Code. It is considered one of the “Offences Against the Administration of Law and Justice”.

This charge occurs when a person represents themselves as a peace or public officer when they are not one. A person can also be charged with this offence if they use a badge, article of clothing, or equipment in a manner that is likely to cause others to believe they are a peace or public officer. Peace and public officer are defined in s. 2 of the Criminal Code.

A peace officer includes mayors, prison staff, wardens, justices of the peace, police officers, constables and bailiffs. A public officer includes Canadian Forces (military) officers, customs officers and RCMP officers. In Alberta, this includes officers of the Calgary Police Service, the Edmonton Police Service and other municipal police services, RCMP officers, and sheriffs.

Personating a peace officer is a hybrid offence with a Crown election. This means that depending on the circumstances of your case, the Crown can elect to proceed by indictment or summarily. If an accused is prosecuted by indictment, there is a defence election of court under s. 536(2) of the Criminal Code. In Alberta, this means you can usually choose a trial in the Alberta Court of Justice or in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, with or without a jury.

Examples

Some examples of personating a peace officer include the following:

  • Showing a homeowner a fake police badge and informing them that they have a warrant to search their house.
  • Pulling over an individual on the road with emergency red and blue lights when they are not a police or peace officer.
  • Falsely and deliberately identifying yourself as a police officer to a member of the public.

If you believe you are under investigation in relation to any of the scenarios above, learn what to do if you are being investigated by the police.

Overview of the offence

According to s.130(1) of the Criminal Code:

Personating peace officer

130 (1) Everyone commits an offence who

a) falsely represents himself to be a peace officer or a public officer; or
b) not being a peace officer or public officer, uses a badge or article of uniform or equipment in a manner that is likely to cause persons to believe that he is a peace officer or a public officer, as the case may be.

The guilty act (actus reus)

The actus reus for personating a peace officer is established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the following:

  • The deliberate act of a person falsely representing themselves as a peace officer.

R. v. Palinker found that the accused represented themselves as a peace officer when he remarked that he was an undercover police officer, and flashed his wallet at a victim.

R. v. Vollrath, a decision of the Provincial Court of Alberta (now the Alberta Court of Justice), found that the accused represented themselves a peace officer when they showed up to a victim’s home in police gear, said they were from the Edmonton Police, and placed handcuffs on the victim.

The guilty mind (mens rea)

The mens rea for personating a peace officer is established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that:

  • The accused had the intent to falsely represent themselves as a peace officer.

In R. v. Palinker, the court held that there is no requirement that the person to whom the representation was made actually believed that person was a peace officer. The mens rea component of this offence only asks whether the accused intended to falsely represent themselves as a peace officer.

How to beat a personating a peace officer charge

Every case is different. The availability and strength of any defence depend entirely on the evidence against you and the precise details of the allegations. Regarding this specific charge, it may also be important to determine the occupation of the accused.

The following are some possible defences that may be used when fighting a personating a peace officer charge:

Factual innocence

A strong defence against a personating a peace officer charge is to maintain that you are factually innocent. If you can show that the facts and evidence do not support that you represented yourself as a peace officer to another person, you may be able to show that you were factually innocent.

No attempt to deceive

If you can show that you dressed up as a police officer for a particular purpose that did not involve making others believe you are a peace officer, you can be found not guilty of the offence. For example, if you wore a police officer’s uniform for Halloween and did not intend to make people believe you were an actual police officer, you may have not committed the offence.

The accused is a peace officer

A strong defence to a personating a peace officer charge is that you were a peace officer at the time of the alleged offence.

In R. v. Kovlaske, the court held that personating a peace officer requires the Crown to prove that the accused is not a peace officer, as opposed to it being simply unclear.

Identity

Depending on the circumstances of your case, you may be to raise an identity defence. For this defence to be raised successfully, you will have to prove that you were not the person who falsely represented themselves as a peace officer to a member of the public.

Any applicable Charter defences

The Charter sets out your rights and freedoms before and after your arrest. If any of your Charter rights were violated before or after your arrest, some or all of the evidence that the Crown is relying on to secure a conviction can be excluded under s. 24(2) of the Charter.

Punishments for personating a peace officer in Alberta

The Criminal Code provides for a possible maximum term of imprisonment of no more than five years for anyone convicted of personating a peace officer. As a hybrid offence, it can be prosecuted summarily or by indictment. If prosecuted summarily, the maximum punishment is no more than 2 years less a day of incarceration and/or a $5,000 fine. There are no mandatory minimum penalties.

Persons found guilty are eligible for sentencing that may include a discharge, suspended sentence, stand-alone fine, custody, custody with a fine or probation, or a conditional sentence order.

Beyond any immediate jail and/or probation sentence you receive, discretionary DNA Orders and Weapons Prohibition Orders may apply. Personating a peace officer is authorized as a secondary offence listed under s. 487.04 (c), (d) or (e). The DNA order can be authorized regardless of whether the Crown proceeds summarily or by indictment.

There can also be severe long-term consequences for current and future employment opportunities and immigration status. Section 130.1 of the Criminal Code outlines that where a court finds that an accused convicted of personating a peace officer did so for the purposes of facilitating another crime, it will be considered an aggravating circumstance in sentencing.

Frequently asked questions

Personating a peace officer is falsely representing oneself as a peace or public officer, or using their badge or other equipment in a manner that is likely to cause others to believe that they are such an officer.

Personating a peace officer is a hybrid offence. This means that the Crown Prosecutor can choose to prosecute the accused either summarily or by indictment. If the Crown chooses to proceed by indictment, the accused will be convicted of an indictable offence if found guilty.

If you are convicted of this offence, you can go to jail. If the Crown proceeds by indictment, the maximum sentence is five years in jail. If the Crown proceeds summarily, the maximum jail sentence is two years less a day. You can go to jail for personating a peace officer, but your chances of avoid that improve if you work with a criminal defence lawyer.

Published decisions

The accused was at a bicycle shop and asked to see one of their electric bicycles. He was wearing a police jacket and police hat, told the store owner that he worked with the police, and offered to show his badge. When the store owner told the accused that the bicycle was not ready, the accused left the store.

To be found guilty of personating a peace officer, the trial judge found that the accused had to:

  • Know he was not an RCMP officer
  • Represent himself as an RCMP officer.

The accused was convicted at trial, but he appealed the decision on the basis that the Crown did not present any evidence that the accused was not a peace officer at the time of the alleged offence. There were available methods to determine whether the accused was a member of the RCMP, but these were not taken by the investigating officers. The appellate court ordered a new trial, on the basis that the Crown could not prove that the accused was not an RCMP officer at the time of the offence.

You can read the full decision here.

The accused, along with two other individuals, took an elderly man from his home in handcuffs while posing as police officers from the Edmonton Police. The men were wearing SWAT clothes and balaclavas. Both the victim and his wife believed the three men were police officers. The men transported the victim to a secondary location, where they amputated his thumb.

The accused was found guilty of personating a police officer under s. 130 of the Criminal Code. The case was decided in Alberta’s provincial court, now called the Alberta Court of Justice.

You can read the full decision here.

The accused approached a young man and woman who were being intimate in the back of their car in a parking lot. The accused asked the couple to roll down their car window, and said he had a few questions to ask them. He had a brief conversation with them before the couple left.

The accused followed the woman back to her apartment and said that he was an undercover police officer, and that he had a video tape of the couple being intimate. The accused threatened to take the video tape to police, unless the woman would touch his crotch. The woman, intimidated, touched the man’s crotch.

The accused was found guilty of personating a peace officer, despite the victim quickly determining that he was not a police officer, as he intended to represent himself as a peace officer and falsely represented himself as one.

You can read the full decision here.