My question involves a traffic incident from the state of: Michigan.
So get this... driving home from work yesterday and this guy tries to cut me off, then tailgates for about 2 miles waving a badge. I can see him in my mirror waving this badge around, pointing to it, and then pointing to the side of the road.
Naturally, I'm skeptical and hesitant to just pull over for some crazy old guy who may or may not be a real law enforcement officer. After about two miles of him tailgating me on a 2 lane, no-passing road, he makes a move like he is going to pass me, but ends up driving against oncoming traffic, still waving this badge at me and shouting for me to pull over. He drives against oncoming traffic for at least a half a mile and forces another driver to pull over onto the shoulder to avoid a head-on collision.
Eventually we end up at a light and he pulls up on my right side, holds up his badge, tells me he's a cop, and orders me to pull over again. I ask him his name and which police department he works for, but he refuses to answer. He says I'm resisting arrest and making it harder on myself by not following orders. So I pull over into a subdivision up the road and he pulls in behind me.
I watch him closely as he gets out of his car, meanwhile keeping my car running with my foot on the brake, ready to take off if needed. I can see he has a handgun in a holster on his belt, covered by his shirt. This makes me very nervous. However, he does not approach my window and instead stands behind my car scribbling on a small notepad with a pencil. At this point, I'm extremely suspicious and I pull out my iPhone and start recording the whole thing.
I get out of my car and he flashes this badge at me again and tells me to wait in my car. I tell him no and approach him, and he retreats to his car. I'm filming the encounter at this point but he doesn't see my phone. I ask him repeatedly to identify himself and his department but he refuses to answer - instead he is screaming obscenities at me. I go around to the back of his car to get his licence plate but there is none, just a temporary tag. I get a close-up of the temporary tag with the VIN on it, then come back around to his driver's door.
He is still scribbling in his notepad and seems visibly shaken, but refuses to identify himself. I tell him it's illegal to pull someone over if you're not a police officer and ask him again if he is a member of law enforcement. He flashes the badge at me again, points to it, says "Police", and I notice he is careful to keep his thumb over the badge number. The badge is only visible for maybe 1 second. He tells me to wait in my car again, so I get in my car and drive away. He doesn't follow. I later went to the local police station and filed a report on the issue.
I have a couple of questions about the whole encounter:
1) Is this something an off-duty or retired police officer would be allowed to do? I mean, can a retired, plainclothes officer in an unmarked car just wave a badge at someone and force them to pull over?
2) Has a crime been committed here? I have, very clearly on the video, him presenting this badge to me, pointing at it, and saying "Police". If this guy was not an officer, would this be considered impersonating a police officer?
Police are investigating, but so far they have no match for the VIN or the other numbers on the temporary tag that was in this guy's vehicle window.

