Police Impersonator Confession: Meet John Dawson

On June 19, 2017 John William Dawson was driving what was then his 2012 Chevy Impala westbound on SR 54 in Lutz, Florida. The Impala bore an FOP license plate, tag number 955FA. A man was in front of Dawson’s Impala, driving his own vehicle, when Dawson decided he didn’t like the guy’s driving. Dawson activated his red and white emergency lights and began flashing his bluish-color headlights at the victim.

Upon making contact with the victim, Dawson exited his vehicle, placing around his neck a law enforcement badge necklace. Dawson ordered the victim to slow down and threatened him with (a) jail, and – bizarrely – (b) running his license plate “again.” He advised the victim that he would arrest him if he ever followed him [Dawson] again, and then ordered the victim to leave immediately. The victim easily identified Dawson from a photo lineup.

The incident was captured on cell phone video, which was aired on Fox News… where Dawson’s wife saw it. He turned himself in later that day. This video presents the original footage, and – for the first time – Dawson’s complete post-Miranda confession. At the end of the confession tape, select court records are shown on screen. Dawson’s Impala was Impounded. That’s some decent alliteration.

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In other news, something is seriously wrong vis-à-vis YouTube’s recommendation engine and our newer content. Fortunately, YouTube has acknowledged the issue. They assured us that it has been escalated, and said that we should expect to hear from someone within 24 hours.

Unfortunately, they said that on Sunday.

And they haven’t said a thing since.

On Sunday morning we published the most recent Jeremy Dewitte video. The one you might not have seen. Because it’s not being suggested… to anyone, or even showing up in subscribers’ home feeds.

The video doesn’t suck, and people — beyond Jeremy — are not ‘over’ the story. The video is advertiser-friendly and it has a clickthrough rate of nearly 13% with an average viewer retention of 13 minutes. The ingredients are there for a hit. Except one: YouTube. The video is not being suggested to prospective viewers.

Let’s put some number on that, because I really want you to understand the magnitude of the effect: YouTube suggestions and browse features are typically the source of 80% – 90% of all views on this channel. For the Dewitte video, they account for almost-zero. Bizarrely, more than 60% of the views on that video are from people going directly to our channel page.

Closer examination reveals that the issue is not limited to Sunday’s Dewitte video. This has been happening — to obvious-but-varying degrees — for at least two to three weeks. For a few reasons, it wasn’t blatantly obvious until Sunday.

To put it mildly, this is not cool. You rely on YouTube’s recommendation engine to discover our new content, and we rely on having an audience to keep the lights on.

Stay tuned for information on how we are going to handle this. A plan is in the works.

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Edit: Notifications are still working. Meaning, if you are subscribed to Real World Police, have the bell ‘rung,’ and have notifications enabled for YouTube on your phone, you were notified about the Dewitte video. But even if you are in that group, if you go to your “Home” feed on mobile, you will likely find that a lot of our recent content is not there. Including the Dewitte video.

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Real World Police proudly supports the Florida First Amendment Foundation, protecting and advancing the public’s constitutional right to open government.

Check out the recent public Patreon posts about access to public records, at http://tiny.cc/records3 http://tiny.cc/records2 and http://tiny.cc/records1.

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36 thoughts on “Police Impersonator Confession: Meet John Dawson

  1. "the nerve of this guy to do that while im in a police looking vehicle" thanks for declaring the exact reason you bought this car.

  2. It's a good thing that it takes an idiot to impersonate law enforcement, if only because that same idiocy often causes them to bury themselves.

  3. "Wow did you get a good deal on the car? How much did you pay for it?" Six thousand, "Did you hear that Dave, we're getting six thou for the company…er…I mean well nuts.."

  4. The outcome of this case was that the guy took the option of pre-trial intervention, which means that the charges were dropped, but he lost the car to forfeiture. I'm kinda mixed on this one – civil asset forfeiture was supposed to be a way to go after people higher up in the drug trafficking and money laundering food chain and this guy wasn't laundering drug money; on the other hand this guy shouldn't have a vehicle that is clearly intended to make the public believe that he is a law enforcement officer.

  5. Lol talking about his conceal carry permit… some BS story… well I never followed up with them… so idk… I'm always at work… I'm never home… but you have time to run around and pull people over and be a dipshit…

  6. The dumb ass is trying to help them find the badge after he lnows hes being charged with a felony and seizing his car because its used in a felony. "I think its the car wash of of Kean road"?

  7. I once impersonated a police officer. I wore a badge, and carried a gun. I even had a dog! I investigated many crimes.

    Then, I turned 9, and decided that I wanted to be a truck driver instead. 🤣😂

  8. I kinda feel.bad for this guy. I hate everyone who impersonate a a cop but this guy I feel.honestly he knowa he messed up and was really bad choice him acting like a straight clown but he is sorry I feel like. I hope he never.does this stuff again but the cops might be acting nice but the cops are lying and the only want the guy to go to jail for as long as the can. You have the right to remain silent. Use that right! They will twist your words so they can try to make it a charge that you haven't done. REMAIN SILENT!!!! NEVER TALK TO LYING.PIGS. REMAIN SILENT!!!!

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