After a suspect approached teen girls walking in Park Ridge on June 14 and 23, declared that he was a police officer and committed batteries while saying he was patting them down, Park Ridge police made an arrest June 29 after deploying female officers as decoys, police said in a news release.
The suspect, James E. Tripi, 38, of the 0-100 block of Trailbridge Court in Streamwood, was arrested and accused of two counts of false impersonation of a police officer, two counts of unlawful restraint and two counts of aggravated battery, the news release said.
At approximately midnight on Thursday, June 29, two Park Ridge female decoy officers dressed as teen girls were walking in the area of the 300 block of South Lincoln Avenue, near where the two incidents had occurred, when the suspect approached them wearing a surgical face mask, with a badge on a chain around his neck, according to police.
The suspect told the female decoy officers he was a police officer conducting curfew checks and told them he needed to pat them down, according to police. He committed a battery to one of the female officers by grabbing her chest, according to the news release.
The female decoy officers identified themselves as police, the suspect ran and a foot chase ensued, according to police, with assisting surveillance officers taking the suspect into custody.
The suspect’s actions closely mirrored what he said and did to the teen girls in the two incidents earlier in June, by in each instance approaching them wearing a badge on a chain, identifying himself as a police officer, saying he needed to do curfew checks and patting them down, according to the news release. In the June 14 and 23 incidents, the teen girls reported he grabbed their buttocks, according to police.
Park Ridge police are continuing their investigation and asked anyone who may have experienced a similar incident to call them at 847-318-5305.
