That article titled "UNTV Host Accuses Cops of Harassment" is very interesting.
That, actually, is not a rare happening. I have heard many similar police scams like that since 1992. It comes in various forms, ranging from unauthorized checkpoints to out-of-line police mobiles. Worse cases are cops in civilian clothes in private cars flagging down their target motorist in the guise of hot pursuit. These are the things I am looking at very closely and wants to eradicate.
The reason why that happens is the cops know that they can easily get away with it under the present system. As I always say, bad people are not 24/7 bad people. Bad people are basically good people like cops, responsible gun owners, politicians, security guards, padre-de-pamilya, mothers, who just "snapped" and does bad things in a very short span of time/space.
In that particular case in the story, the victim stopped and opened her car even without getting a verification that the police mobile and the cops therein are LEGIT in terms of time and space. This is what I want to avoid because even if you have a gun, if you are flagged down, you can no longer be sure if you will survive if you fight it out.
In my proposal, uniform of cops, and checkpoint barriers, and police cars will have a big numbers. You just text this big numbers to a central SMS and the computer will respond you you instantly of the LEGIT location and time the unit is supposed to be.
The other issue I see in that instance is, I think it is wrong that cops can just flag down anyone anywhere. There should be a properly coordinated checkpoint location where flagging down is allowed. The location should be transparent and safe for the police and for motorist being flagged down -- could be in a designated legit checkpoint.
