For over 20 years, Jeremy Dewitte has been impersonating police officers in Central Florida — and committing countless other crimes all the while.
X (Formerly Twitter)Jeremy Dewitte is one of Florida’s most notorious fake cops.
Jeremy Dewitte has had a strange criminal career. A “serial” police impersonator, this Florida man has pretended to be a cop for more than two decades. He’s also been arrested for several other crimes, including “lewd lascivious battery sex” with a minor, failure to register as a sex offender, insurance fraud, and repeated violations of probation.
Dewitte’s first arrest for police impersonation happened in 1998, when he pretended to be an undercover cop at a gas station. As the years went on, his impersonations became increasingly elaborate, bizarre, and dangerous. At one point, he even created his own fake police force in Florida, including uniforms, 18 cruisers, and other wannabe law enforcement officers.
Though Dewitte has been in and out of jail for over 20 years and has no chance of ever becoming a real police officer due to his record, that hasn’t stopped him from impersonating authority figures. As Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez put it in 2022: “He’d go around directing traffic, stopping people, stopping cars. The guy’s definitely out of control.”
This is the bizarre story of Jeremy Dewitte.
Jeremy Dewitte’s Early Criminal Career
YouTubeThough Jeremy Dewitte initially tried to pass himself off as an undercover cop, he later became much bolder with his impersonations, wearing a uniform that was similar to that of a real police officer.
Jeremy Dewitte was born on February 10, 1980 in Central Florida. From an early age, he reportedly dreamed of becoming a police officer. But instead of working toward his goals the legal way, he started impersonating a cop.
In 1998, Dewitte was caught posing as an undercover officer at a gas station in order to steal $14.50 worth of gas. While Dewitte was able to convince the cashier that he was a real cop and that payment for the gas would be coming “at any time,” he made the mistake of giving his real name, home address, and information on his driver’s license to the cashier.
After the cashier provided this information to the police, authorities immediately realized that Dewitte was not a real cop. Just 18 at the time, he was too young to have been sworn in. Dewitte was soon charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer and stealing the gasoline.
This arrest did not deter Jeremy Dewitte from police impersonation, and by 2001, he was at it again. Still posing as an undercover officer, the Florida man attracted attention thanks to his car, which he’d outfitted to look like an unmarked police vehicle with flashing lights, strobes, and a police-like radio. He also identified himself as an undercover cop working at a mall trying to catch cell phone thieves at Cingular Wireless.
According to Real World Police, he was arrested yet again after a witness became suspicious of his act and reported him. And with that, Dewitte became infamous among authorities in Central Florida, who were stunned by the apparent dedication he had to his scheme.
But in 2005, Dewitte became notorious for another reason: He was convicted of “lewd lascivious battery sex” with a minor and sentenced to a year in prison. Once he got out, he was required to register as a sex offender — something he repeatedly failed to do. He also violated his probation, eventually leading to a four-year prison sentence in 2009.
Dewitte was ultimately released early in 2011. And unbeknownst to authorities, he was plotting his most elaborate police impersonation yet.
How Jeremy Dewitte Became Nationally Infamous As A Fake Cop
FacebookJeremy Dewitte’s Metro-State Special Services was only permitted to escort funeral processions in Florida, but Dewitte often acted as if this unit was a real police force.
In the years after his 2011 release from prison, Jeremy Dewitte encountered trouble with the law again and again. Not only did he continue to impersonate police officers and fail to register as a sex offender, but he also formed his own fake police force called “Metro-State Special Services.”
By 2019, this “force” had 18 cruisers, official-looking uniforms, and several other wannabe cops who were eager to work alongside Dewitte. Officially, this “unit” was only permitted to escort funeral processions.
But in practice, Dewitte ran the unit as if he and his coworkers were real law enforcement officers. His choice of uniforms, cruisers, and motorcycles resembled those that real police officers would use. And when Dewitte was in uniform, he would often illegally direct traffic, pull people over, ride at high speeds into oncoming traffic, and harass drivers.
Shockingly, he captured many of his illegal antics on his own body cam footage, which he would often post to his YouTube channel.
Orange County SheriffIn many of his arrest photos and videos, Jeremy Dewitte can be seen wearing an official-looking uniform.
Jeremy Dewitte’s body cam footage showed him cursing out multiple unsuspecting motorists, including a man he called a “f*ck boy” and a woman he called a “dumb white b*tch in a blue car,” according to the Daily Mail. At one point, Dewitte even threatened an off-duty sheriff’s deputy while illegally directing traffic during a funeral procession.
Noticing that something was off, the sheriff’s deputy identified himself to Dewitte and told him that he was breaking the law with his rogue traffic directing. In response, Dewitte said, “It doesn’t matter. Get out of my escort motherf*cker boy.” He then sent other fake cops he’d recruited for his funeral escorts to follow the deputy as he drove away from the scene.
Unsurprisingly, Dewitte soon found himself in police custody yet again. He was arrested at least twice for police impersonation in 2019 alone. Meanwhile, the footage of him pulling cars over and berating motorists went viral, attracting the attention of countless viewers all over the United States.
Jeremy Dewitte’s 2021 appearance on Dr. Phil’s show made him even more infamous. He’d gone on the show to deny being a police impersonator — and ended up failing a polygraph test that he volunteered to take. Despite this, Dewitte said, “I know I wasn’t lying. I know I’m not being deceptive.”
Just one month after the talk show appearance, Dewitte was arrested for being a police impersonator yet again.
A Seemingly Endless Criminal Record
Public DomainA 2022 mugshot of Jeremy Dewitte.
After Jeremy Dewitte was released from jail for police impersonation around September 2022, he found himself arrested yet again that November. According to Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez, Dewitte had violated his probation, which included his failure to take down his YouTube channel.
According to The Daily Beast, Dewitte claimed that he had been hacked and could no longer access his YouTube account. But Sheriff Lopez didn’t buy it: “You can definitely deactivate your account, so he’s full of it.”
Lopez also called Dewitte a “frequent flyer” who didn’t care about getting in trouble with the police because he “definitely loves the attention.” Indeed, by January 2023, he’d been arrested yet again, this time on charges of insurance fraud. His most recent arrest came in April 2024, when Dewitte was taken into custody for failure to report a change in vehicle ownership.
It remains to be seen whether Jeremy Dewitte will ever spend any significant time in prison for his crimes. Either way, he’s certainly cemented a troubling legacy as one of Florida’s most infamous fake police officers.
After reading about Jeremy Dewitte, the “serial” police impersonator, learn about Michael Dowd, one of the most corrupt cops in the NYPD. Then, check out some of the most brazen police scandals in American history.
