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06/21/2024 11:22 AMLast month, Richard Swan, a Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) official, was arrested in Old Saybrook and charged with impersonating a police officer. Swan is due in Middlesex Superior Court next month.
According to an arrest warrant, the Old Saybrook Police Department charged Swan with impersonating a police officer on May 28, a felony, due to an incident that occurred at the end of April. Swan, assistant director for the Emergency Response Unit at DEEP, is an Old Saybrook resident who had served locally on town boards. Per the state’s judicial site, Swan has not entered a plea and is due back in court on July 11.
Swan’s arrest stems from an incident around 11 p.m. on April 27. That night, Swan saw a group of teenagers he thought were acting suspiciously.
According to interviews with police, the kids said they were playing a game called “Assassins,” a popular game with Old Saybrook High School students in which kids try to squirt their target with a water gun when they are least suspecting it.
Swan told police his suspicions were raised due to a number of car break-ins in the neighborhood. Swan and another adult he was with called the police to alert them of the suspicious behavior. They then approached a car where three juveniles were seated and asked them for their licenses.
Swan identified himself to police as a “DEEP officer” and provided the kids’ identities to police officers.
When officers arrived on the scene, they quickly determined that the kids were playing a game and were not up to anything nefarious.
However, after interviews with the juveniles over the next three weeks, the kids alleged that Swan not only asked for their license but pulled behind the teens in his state-issued DEEP vehicle with red and blue emergency lights on and flashed a badge to the kids.
Police said Swan does not have authority in his capacity as a DEEP officer to perform motor vehicle stops and was charged on May 28 with impersonating a police officer.