Now You'll Know For Sure It's a Cop

Everyone's heard stories about crimes that have occurred by people posing as police officers. This past summer, a man posing as a police officer robbed a mobile home in Wareham. In February, police were on the lookout for a man "posing as a police officer and seeking access to homes."

There are many ways criminals use an ID or a badge to commit crimes, some of them more rare than others. But still a threat.

Realizing the potential threat to safety, Massachusetts took the initiative and has become the first in the country to implement new ID cards that are uniform in design, and designed to thwart tampering and counterfeiting.

Until now, while officers are required to carry an ID, they varied from state to state, department to department, and were not beyond counterfeiting.

Spearheaded by Bill Brooks, deputy chief for the Wellesley Police Department, police departments across the state began issuing new credentials last year, but the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association announced on Thursday at the Northborough Police Department that the ID program is in full swing.

"People posing as a police officer in uniform is rare," said Brooks, "but what is more common is people in plain clothes saying that they are officers. Also, people could try to get a weapon into a secure place. That doesn't happen often, but the effects that it could cause could be devastating if it did."

The cards, manufactured by a secure system by vendor MorphoTrust USA, have features that make them extremely difficult to duplicate, including a Kinegram (which is similar to the seal across a driver's license), department seal, bar code and two photos.

Presently, 324 of the 351 police departments in cities and towns, as well as MBTA security, have been issued these IDs. That's 13,000 IDs out of 16,000 officers in the state. The initiative cost roughly $320,000, paid for by Homeland Security funds.

While have never had any problems with their old IDs, they welcome the change.

"The cards that we were using before were basically a typed piece of paper signed by the and laminated with our picture in it," Sergeant Joseph Bennett said. "This brings us up to a modern and standard card."

Massachusetts is the only state so far to institute the program, though others have expressed interest.

The public is urged to read more about the Massachusetts Police ID program.