On 8/23/14, at approximately 8:30 PM, officers with the Benton Police Department make contact with an individual about possible suspicious activity.
According to the individual, she was pulled over near the intersection of Jackman St. and Airlane Dr. by what appeared to be an undercover police car. It was described as being an older model, dark colored four door car with one blue light on the front dash.
A white male subject, approximately 30 years old with a southern accent, then made contact with her and asked for her license and registration without identifying himself or stating why she was pulled over. She became uncomfortable about the stop and informed the subject she was going to drive to a nearby gas station. Instead of following her to the station, the subject turned off the blue light and turned around to go in the opposite direction.
Detectives are still in the process of determining whether it was possibly an officer with another agency since county and state officers have jurisdiction as well. Although it wasn’t one of our officers, our agency does use undercover vehicles occasionally for traffic stops. Our vehicles have numerous blue lights and other emergency equipment installed on them instead of one light on the dash.
We are advising people to do a couple of things if they are unsure whether it’s an actual police officer pulling them over in an unmarked car. First, they can immediately call 911 and the dispatcher will be able to quickly tell them whether it’s an actual officer stopping them. If they don’t have a phone on them, they can proceed slowly to the nearest, populated area such as a gas station, grocery store, or even the police department if close by.
This investigation is on-going, but anyone with information about this crime is encouraged to contact the Benton Police Department at 501-778-1171 or 501-315-TIPS. Individuals also may send an anonymous crime tip about this incident to CRIMES (274637) with the keyword BNPD in the body of the text or go to www.crimereports.com to leave a tip. A crime tip can also be submitted via the official Benton Police Department app found on ITunes and Google Play.
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