Police imitator says he dreamed of wearing badge
Man who impersonated officer gets two years of probation
All Curtis John Ulmer wanted was to be a police officer like his father. His whole life, he believed it was his place to help people in need.
In 2014, Ulmer’s doctor told him the resurgence of a medical condition affecting his heart and lungs meant he’d never wear a badge. Ulmer decided to become a police officer anyway.
He equipped his car with red-and-blue lights, clipped a baton to his utility belt and wore police clothing he ordered off the Internet. Ulmer, 38, told local businesses he was a beat officer and pulled over a driver outside his son’s school to warn him about speeding.
It was never real, no matter how much he wanted it to be. On Monday, Ulmer was sentenced to two years of probation for impersonating a police officer and possession of a prohibited weapon.
“I’m sorry,” he told court. “I guess I’m just lost more than anything after 36 years of wanting something and it’s gone. I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody. I’m trying to find my place. That’s all I’ve ever done.”
Provincial court Judge Laura Stevens said Ulmer’s case was “highly unusual, somewhat bizarre and ultimately sad behaviour. This is a case of a person holding himself out to be a police officer to do good things and be admired by people around him.”
However, the judge said, Ulmer presented a serious risk if a citizen who truly needed a police officer ever approached him for help.
Stevens also ordered Ulmer to complete 100 hours of community service.
On the night of May 15, 2014, Ulmer parked his modified Ford Taurus at a Winterburn Road gas station and introduced himself as a local beat officer to the clerk.
Though Ulmer wore a police ball cap, a neon green police vest and a holstered air pistol on his hip, the clerk didn’t believe him. After he left, she wrote down his licence plate and called the real police.
The next day, Ulmer pulled over a speeding driver outside his son’s west Edmonton school using the lights and siren he’d installed in his car. He told teachers he’d given the speeding driver a ticket and used his status as an officer to park in staff parking.
Staff knew him as Detective Ulmer.
On May 24, Ulmer blared his siren and flashed his lights through a crosswalk as children left the school. He activated his siren again to let his son know he’d arrived to pick him up.
Inside Ulmer’s home, investigators found duty belts, badges, police hats, holsters, handcuffs, pepper spray, a breathalyzer, notebooks, a baton, an air pistol, a dashboard camera and a prohibited stun gun.