Westerville man charged with impersonating a police officer during traffic stop
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – A traffic stop initiated by a Westerville man ended with him being charged with impersonating an officer.
Westerville police responded on the morning of Jan. 21 to a call from Columbus police after they were asked to assist a man driving a car with flashing police lights who had pulled over another vehicle. A Columbus officer on scene told Westerville officer Rodney Ross, whose body camera captured the incident, that the man said he was with the Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Program.
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Watch edited body camera footage from Westerville police in the player above.
“I don’t know what that is,” the Columbus officer told Ross. “I’m not familiar with it. I don’t know. He showed me a badge or something. But he stopped this car. He said they’d been driving all over the road and [were] going to kill somebody.”
The man was driving a Ford SUV outfitted similarly to a police car, with flashing lights on the front, top and rear; sirens; a mobile display terminal; radio; dashcam; partition and a mounted shotgun, according to police. Police believe the vehicle was purchased as a used police vehicle.
The man was identified as Brendan Conklin, 43, of Westerville. He has been charged him with impersonation of a peace officer and unlawful restraint.
“In my 23 years, this is the first time I’ve seen an impersonation case that has gone to this extent, that has gone this in-depth with lights and sirens on a cruiser,” Westerville Police Department Det. Lt. Justin Alloway said.
Police guided Conklin to a side road to review the incident, which took place along Cleveland Avenue near the entrance of Mount Carmel St. Ann’s hospital. Conklin told Ross that he pulled the car over for driving too slowly.
“I waved them down. He was going to kill everybody on the road. … Dude, he was going 11 on the road, went in front of three other people,” said Conklin, before noting he was off-duty and on his way home.
Conklin said he noticed the Columbus police cruiser and waved it down. St. Ann’s is in Westerville but near the border of Columbus. He told Ross that the driver of the vehicle was slow to follow his commands.
“I gave him commands 11 times on my radio with the lights on — turn right, turn right, turn right, get off the road, get off the road,” he said. “He didn’t follow any instructions.”
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Ross collected a badge number and a business card from Conklin before thanking him for his help. Ross’ body camera recording ended shortly after that.
The SUV that Conklin was driving is registered to the Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Program, a nonprofit organization that is registered with the state.
Westerville police said Conklin listed the association’s address as 120 Marconi Boulevard, which is Columbus police headquarters. But on its website, the address was listed as a post office box in Westerville, and on state records, a location in Westlake, a suburb of Cleveland.
On its website, the Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Program described itself as operating “as a distinct component of the law enforcement ecosystem” and “involves the pursuit and apprehension of individuals who have evaded the judicial process.” But content on the website was removed about 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, around the time that NBC4 reached out to an email address on the site for comment.
Among the agency’s listed duties and responsibilities were fugitive identification, case analysis, legal adherence, surveillance and intelligence gathering, collaboration with law enforcement agencies, apprehension strategy, negotiation and conflict resolution, training and development.
“We’ve conducted a search warrant at his residence and seized some electronic media from his dash cam and body cam and we know for a fact that he’s made other traffic stops,” Alloway said.
Alloway said the traffic stop isn’t the only incident where police suspect Conklin of impersonating an officer.
“I know one person that he did stop, he actually placed under arrest because they had a warrant for their arrest,” Alloway said. “However, it wasn’t a felony warrant that he had a contract to be able to actually arrest that person.”
He’s unsure of why Conklin would act the way he has.
“I don’t know what the motivation is at this point,” Alloway said. “It can be anything from wanting to be a police officer and not be able too and still wanting to take the law into their own hands like this.”
Conklin was released on his own recognizance on Jan. 22 during an arraignment hearing. He is scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing on Feb. 6. Additional charges are pending.
Police said they are investigating the incident further and ask that anyone who believes they may have been stopped by Conklin to call 614-901-6866 or 614-882-7444.
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