Driver’s answers, items in car lead to arrest on charge of impersonating police officer

MIAMISBURG — Answers a driver gave a Springboro police officer at a traffic stop and items found during a search of that man’s car led to his arrest on a charge of impersonating a police officer.

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Springboro Police Officer William Overholtz, working from an alert to area law enforcement agencies about a Chevrolet Tahoe being involved in a road rage incident in Miamisburg on June 15, spotted the vehicle that same day while canvassing passing traffic, according to a police department incident report News Center 7 obtained Monday evening.

Overholtz had the car stop in a Kroger gas station parking lot, got out and approached to question the driver, later identified as 52-year-old Dennis Meade of Middletown. Meade remains in the Montgomery County Jail on a charge of impersonating a police officer or private police officer.

Overholtz, in the incident report, wrote that he assumed the driver was a retired law enforcement officer of some sort because the car had a light bar on top, a thin blue line flag on the hatch of the tailgate and a license plate that featured a large blue logo that read, “Concerns of Police Survivors” with “C.O.P.S” written on it.

Meade initially told Overholtz he had no idea why he had been pulled over. Overholtz asked him specifically about the road rage incident. Meade took a second and then remembered what had happened just prior to being pulled over.

He said he was not in law enforcement or using his Tahoe for work-related purposes. He also said he used to live in California.

The officer later discovered that Meade had a pistol with a round in the chamber and a loaded magazine in his pocket and was not a police officer or affiliated with a law enforcement entity.

Overholtz called the Ohio State Highway Patrol to assist in taking Meade into custody on the charge of impersonating an officer, which a trooper did.

The incident report noted that Meade has a criminal record that includes a conviction on a charge of impersonating a police officer while he lived in California. He also has been charged with several other felonies including gun crimes, possession of burglary tools, stolen property, and more.

Meade’s criminal record also includes a charge of possession and/or use of tear gas and using fake government ID.

Overholtz searched Meade’s Tahoe, as part of the arrest, and found several items that correlated with the criminal charge. Those items included two sets of handcuffs, traffic cones, a neon yellow vest and jacket, road flares, a New York Police Department patch, and reflective blue tape so his doors would shine blue at night.

Monday night, Meade remained in the Montgomery County Jail on a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a police officer or private police officer. The charge accuses him of trying to force a car carrying a family of four from Franklin off the road at state Route 741 in Miamisburg on June 15. Meade then activated his overhead lights and tried to stop the same car on I-75 South near Austin Boulevard.

Meade has admitted to police that he activated his lights to try and get the car to pull over but he would not say why.

We will continue updating this story as we learn more.

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