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| Retired officer pleads no contest to having fake police ID By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Friday, September 12, 2008 11:53 AM PDT John Dale Smith, a Half Moon Bay resident accused of impersonating a San Francisco Police officer, has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of possessing counterfeit government documents and possessing a deadly weapon. The 65-year-old will serve 10 days in jail and will be on probation for the next three years. Last October, Half Moon Bay Police became suspicious after stopping Smith for a traffic citation. According to the police report, when a city police officer stopped Smith and asked for his license, registration and insurance, Smith showed him a copy of a police ID card, saying he was a San Francisco Police officer on disability — which turned out to be false. Believing the police ID was fake, officers obtained a search warrant to raid Smith’s home, seizing a number of knives, clubs, badges and Xeroxed police IDs. According to law officials, the police IDs had forged signatures of Heather Fong, the chief of the San Francisco Police. While Smith has never worked for the San Francisco Police Department, he has worked for decades with the Special Patrol Officers, a unique San Francisco union of independent officers who perform contract law enforcement services. |