Following this fubar, the Philly PD should have "DOH" tattooed on their foreheads.

LOL good one!

Better than an L I guess.

Sorta hard to name the real escaped suspect..WHEN YA DON'T KNOW HIS NAME..freaking nitwits.

@ #1.4 Rw - and you hadn't even fingerprinted him yet!

I was actually arrested almost ten times over a five-year period because of something similar. My brother, who's a lifelong criminal, frequently got into trouble with the law, and when he was asked by police for ID (perhaps during a traffic stop for driving without tags, no insurance, suspended license, etc.), he would say he didn't have it with him. Police would then ask for his driver's license number, which he'd then say he forgot (and it's not an arrestable offense to drive without having a license on your person). So, they'd finally ask for his name and birthday.

Well, since he almost always had warrants out for his arrest, he knew giving them his real name and birthday would lead to his being arrested on the spot, so he would give them my name and birthday, and when they ran these, they'd see that such a person does, indeed, exist, and they'd proceed to issue a ticket in my name, complete with an order to appear in court.

Now, he wasn't about tell me he had done this, so when he (or, more to the point, I) didn't show up for the set court date, a warrant would be issued for my arrest.

Eventually, police would end up behind me while driving--as they end up behind all of us at one point or another--and when they'd run my license plate number, as is routine, they'd see that I had warrants for my arrest, and they'd pull me over and haul me off to jail.

Again, this happened nearly ten times over a five year period, and it happened with multiple police departments in multiple towns and even multiple counties. Even after it happened several times in the same town, law enforcement policies weren't changed to prevent this form of identity theft, so it was allowed to happen again and again.

Luckily, they never put out a flyer alerting the general public to my wantedness, thereby at least saving me such public humiliation as this guy must've felt. But, it does go to show how incompetent police all over the country are that they'll just take a stranger's word for it that they are who they say they are, without any proof of identity.

Now, think about this for a minute. Our government is using threats to our safety as an excuse to infringe on our federally mandated civil liberties, but when total strangers can just give a fake name and a matching birthday to law enforcement officials to avoid apprehension (or to get the wrong person charged with a crime), it's clear that we're not nearly as safe from terrorists as they'd have us believe, since there's nothing stopping them from doing the same thing that homegrown criminals can. This also means they care much less about our safety than they do about treating us all like suspected criminals.

But, I digress. The main point is that this happens far more often than one might think, and I can pretty much guarantee you that this police department's flub won't result in a change to its own policies about proving people's identities before charging them with crimes. It's pure ol' laziness on their part, and their laziness costs innocent people tons more work and hassle than they saved themselves.

To make matters worse, victims of these officers' ineptitude can't even recover damages, because police departments and their officers get to hide behind sovereign immunity, even when their misdeeds result from gross negligence, and even after multiple instances of such negligence by the same police department.

Obviously a Red Dwarf fan. Should be easy to narrow it down - look for the crook watching PBS and you've got your man.

Idiots!

Maybe they should take a DNA sample every time they arrest someone (before they are allowed to escape.) The fingerprints could also be quickly captured with a portable electronic unit - it would not need to be online, just store it and dump the data when they take the arrestee in for booking. If he slips away, at least the officer has prints.

Good idea - make using a false ID a mandatory 20-year sentence. Make it more costly to lie about ID than it would be to just admit the crime and get it over with.

Cops are the defects that nobody else but the city would hire...!!!

Yeh AC lets just scrap the law enforcement in this country since all the cops are idiots, even money says you'd be the first one crying to authorities about cops not doing their job when you were robbed or had your head caved in.

I'll take my chances with the police, many are my friends and neighbors who put their lives on the line daily, even for disrespectful people like you who don't deserve it!

Troll somewhere else...............

Are there some authority issues with some of us?

Granted, the story is foolish, but after reading some of the generalized statements about police men and women that are on this board, I have to ask what happened to respect? About 10 years ago, police, and others, were afforded the respect they deserved; they were treated as heroes.

It's honestly none of my concern as to what others think of police, but this paradigm shift over the past few years has caused me to wonder why the contempt. From the president on down to the night watchman or woman, those in authority have been the target of more and more flack in recent years. Ironically, it's those same few folks who ensure our way of life every day.

No, even ten years ago they weren't given respect. I have never been arrested but I have never had a good experience with a cop. The first time I was stopped one of my brake lights were out. The cop made me step out of the car like I was a common criminal asked if he could search my vehicle, being 17 I had no idea that I could refuse. I allowed it, he didn't find anything, then after an hour of shaking in my boots wondering what the problem was he told me a brake light was out and I was free to go. That is one of four experiences, none of which, resulted in a ticket or anything other than being scared to death because cops enjoy their power and use it to frighten people.

LD Rhodes,

My luck has pretty much been the opposite of your story :-) When I was 14 I was out with a 16 year old friend and he got pulled over for driving too slow (his truck was breaking down). I was 14 and had no ID and got into trouble for not having ID (in the 90's in a rural community where the only high school did not provide school ID's because there was less than 500 kids). My mom was a 911 dispatcher at the time and I told him that she was on duty so he called into dispatch to verify my identity then told me I had to get an ID because it was illegal not to have one (I found out that is not true).

When I was 18 I was out with my boyfriend and a girl friend of mine. My girl friend was also friends with another 18 year old girl that rougly fit my description (thin, dark hair, brown eyes, glasses). We actually looked nothing alike as she was very pale and she was thin from drug use while I had a very dark tan and was healthy from no drug use and a lot of outdoor physical activity. We were at a gas station and an officer approached us, called me by the other girls name and told me I was under arrest. I told him I was not that girl and he asked me for proof at which point I realized that I had left the house without my purse (I wasn't driving and did not think about it). I told him that my home, with my id was only 10 minutes down the road and that if he would like to follow us I could provide it. He told me I was legally obligated to carry ID (not true) and that he did not believe me and I was under arrest. I then told him that I had an aunt and uncle that were officers with the state police and that my mother was a dispatcher for the county 911 center and that he could verify my identity with them. I was cuffed and placed into the back of his car with the intention of going to the detention center when my uncles partner who was off duty showed up at the gas station and asked why I was being arrested. The officer told him I had outstanding warrants and he asked for proof, then told him that he had a case of mistaken identity and told him who I really was. The officer still insisted that because I had no ID he had cause to take me in. Finally I was allowed to go get my ID and prove that I was me, but it really messed up our day.

It astounds me that I have been in trouble twice for not having ID yet they will allow someone that gets pulled over to go with no real proof and no hassel, and that a man could be arrested and nothing done to prove his identity before he manages to escape. Guess good people are more likely to be harrassed for being cooperative than bad people are for being liars.

Not So Lazy Guy,

People only deserve respect insofar as they respect others. But when we see civil rights violation after civil rights violation at the hands of police, as well as racism, gay bashing, and general bullying and/or brutality, to think that the public should still respect them isn't just misguided; it's unconscionable. It smacks of tyranny/dictatorship.

When police act honorably, they're treated with honor. When they act respectfully, they're treated with respect. And when they act heroically, they're treated as heroes. But when they act like incompetent fools or even outright bullies and thugs, they're treated with hostility and resentment. No one likes to be oppressed, especially by those charged with their protection. Anyone who thinks this is an unnatural or unfair reaction is out of touch with reality.

L.J. Rhodes

I have a similar story.. My aunt use to use all our names to get utilities and credit cards. I have huge backowed bills in my name and i have filed complaints with all the companies..
However she did worse by my mother.. Here in Oregon you have to carry ID its illegal not to..

My aunt cooks and sells meth.. Anytime she got popped for drugs she would use the same excuse that she didnt have her DL and would use my mom's name and social security number.. My mother and I were leaving a funeral and she was pulled over for having a license plate light out, I pulled over infront of her to wait for her to finish with the police officer because i didnt know my way around the area we were in.. I went in to shock when the cop pulled her from her car and proceeded to arrest her.. He told her she was lying about being Lori and that her real name was Leslee.. I flagged the cop over and told him that her name was Lori and we all went over what was going on for an hour.. The police officer was able to pull up the mugshot of the fake Lori and compared them on the side of the road..

We had to go down to our justice center and get a Do Not Confuse Order and my mom had to be fingerprinted and mugshot- it pissed her off because she has never been in trouble and now she is in the system because of her sister.. Every time my mother got pulled over which happened alot because of what the sister did she had to produce the do not confuse..

Trust me i would rather call her any other name then my aunt but i'll keep it pg on newsvine.. Family suck, police sometimes suck but i dont fault them..

L. J. Rhodes, I sympathize with your situation, but I am not concerned about the terrorists using your name, when it was your own brother doing this to you. I would be more concerned about so called friends and family doing this to you. There is a case here where a woman's cousin keep using her name when she is arrested. I don't understand why that continues to happen.

Perhaps a "Hose-e" soon...........:)

He was injured and taken to the hospital. That is when he escaped. No IDing or fingerprinting done there.

where in the H did he go...

just a guess but i'm thinking the guy is swimming at the shallow end of the brains pool. very shallow....lol. i may be wrong but tattooing an h on your forehead is pretty stupid it you ask me.

Band Aid? Didn't Eric Clapton play that? ;-)

I about fell out of the chair over that one. Classic!!

nip it... in the bud...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de_P2aUZJyA

Could well be that the H was quite small. A lot of thugs have a teardrop next their eye. So small it is difficult to see, but it is always included in ID's.

Maybe the guy was black.

XD, have you ever had the pleasure of spending time in Philly ? "City of Brotherly Love" is a misnomer for its current status. Betsy Ross and Ben Franklin are rolling in their graves. The Liberty Bell is still cracked.:P

Insurance companies can't charge anyone with anything. They can only deny--payment or a policy--or pay up--usually proportionately less than they promised. Too bad we can't depreciate they payments as much....

Okeeboy, no it hasn't. How about this: "It's Obama's Fault"!

That's easy - they thought the 'H' was applied after the most recent mug shot.

It would be simple to put a fingerprint on every arrest ticket, traffic citation, etc. (Maybe two prints - one for the suspect and one for the arresting officer.)

And for good reason - the workers at McDonald's can be fired if they mess up.