A-Musing Stuff: ULotD: Officer Smylie 


ULotD: Officer Smylie
glen@substance.abuse.blackdown.org
Wed 10 Dec 1997 18:42:43 -0500


Fake cop fools the SFPD

Man who found badge on bus passed as officer for weeks

Larry D. Hatfield
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Like most freshly minted cops, Troy Smylie was all over the place, flashing 
his shiny new badge and offering all kinds of help to fellow officers. 

Trouble was, Officer Smylie, as an increasing number of folks knew him,
didn't own the badge and he wasn't a cop at all.

As a result, Smylie, 35, of San Francisco, is now in the slammer, faced with
an array of felony and misdemeanor charges - including stealing police cars,
receiving stolen property, appropriating lost property, burglary and, most 
embarrassing to real cops, impersonating a police officer.

"It's a pretty strange case," said Inspector Vince Repetto, who is
investigating the case, on Saturday. "This guy was impersonating a cop and
getting away with it, even with other cops."

According to Repetto, the case of the fake cop came to light Friday morning
when Smylie walked into the Hall of Justice field operations bureau and
tried to turn in San Francisco Police Department Star No. 1542.

Sgt. John Fewer was there and saw that Smylie fit the description of a
suspect who had been taking police vehicles from the police garage and posing as a police officer.

Officer Smylie was arrested by Fewer. In the arrest report the victim was
listed as the San Francisco Police Department, with additional victims
possibly to follow.

"It's been going on for the last five or six weeks, we think," Repetto
said. Smylie, a currently unemployed truck driver, told police he found the
star on a Muni bus.

There has been no report of a lost or stolen star from the officer to whom
it is assigned or anyone else, Repetto said. He noted that when someone
leaves the department, the star number is reassigned "so this may have gone
back for years . . . a police officer may or may have not lost it, or it
might have been lost by a civilian who had an old star."

Befriended employees

In any case, it worked fine for Officer Smylie.

"He began wearing it first on his belt, then on his chest," Repetto said. 
He began hanging around the police service garage and befriending employees
there.

"They thought he was a cop so they didn't give it a second thought," Repetto
said. "He wasn't drawing attention to himself. Everybody just assumed he
was a police officer. He had equipment. He had a police star. He seemed to
be legitimate."

According to the police report: "After gaining the confidence of the
employees and access to the police service station, Mr. Smylie on at least
two occasions took the keys to SFPD vehicles from the "work completed" board
and stole unmarked SFPD vehicles from 950 Bryant St. (the Hall of Justice)."

If he couldn't just pick the keys off a board, he burgled the unmarked cars,
police said.

"Mr. Smylie admitted to me that be openly displayed the SFPD star and
impersonated a police officer many times," Repetto said.

Responded to a homicide

On Thursday, the imitation cop responded to a homicide in Minna Street
downtown. While there he helped out the real police officers after a truck
sideswiped a patrol car by detaining the driver and gathering driver's
license and insurance information.

A couple weeks earlier, Repetto said while driving a stolen police car, he
assisted two other officers who had a suspect in custody in the
Tenderloin. He drove them and the prisoner to headquarters.

Smylie allegedly took a police officer's weapon - a Sig Satier P220
.45-caliber automatic - from the trunk of one car.

"He went out to the police range with that weapon and fired it," Repetto
said. "He even repaired the weapon."


He apparently fired the weapon at least 10 times at the Lake Merced range,
police said.

The fake cop was able to obtain an SFPD traffic accident report and gained
access to traffic court citation records in the Hall of Justice.

"He would hang around the Hall of Justice, befriending officers. Basically,
he was going around and doing this four, five, six weeks," Repetto said.

Seized paraphernalia

Police searched the house where Smylie lived with his wife Jodi, 33, and
found a stash of police property, including a scanner, police belt, holster,
key rings and other police paraphernalia.

Smylie confessed to taking the .45 after it turned up in a search of his
mother-in-law's home, Repetto said.

Perhaps most embarrassing to the cops, Smylie several times visited the
outer offices of Police Chief Fred Lau and Assistant Chief Earl Sanders,
apparently arousing no suspicion about his credentials. The purpose of the
visits was unclear.

"Smylie told me his masquerade was so effective he was repeatedly accepted
as a police officer," Repetto said

Why he did it is still unclear. Repetto said he hadn't discerned a reason
and from his jail cell, Smylie turned down a request by The Examiner
Saturday to interview him.

He faces arraignment early this week.

Repetto asked that any citizen who has been victimized by or encountered
someone identifying himself as a police officer who aroused suspicion to
call him at 553-9117.

If an Officer Smylie answers, hang up.


Back