REVISITED: The Kid Who Couldn’t Stop Playing Cop

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Chameleon – REVISITED: The Kid Who Couldn’t Stop Playing Cop

Host: Josh Dean
Guests: William Lee (Chicago Tribune), Matt Stroud (Better Government Association, The Verge)
Date: July 2, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Chameleon revisits the incredible true story of Vincent Richardson—a South Side Chicago boy so desperate to become a police officer that he simply started pretending to be one at age 14. Host Josh Dean retraces Vincent’s improbable journey from ambitious Explorer Program teen, to notorious “kid cop” whose impersonations embarrassed the Chicago PD, through years of repeated offenses, adult prison stints, and a never-ending quest for belonging. With input from two veteran reporters who covered the saga—William Lee and Matt Stroud—the story is both stranger-than-fiction and a poignant reflection on ambition, opportunity, and how some kids fall through society’s cracks.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Vincent’s Legendary First Day – Age 14 ([01:47]–[03:14])

• In January 2009, Vincent Richardson, only 14 but dressed in a convincing Chicago police uniform, walked into a busy precinct, received a radio and squad car, was paired with an officer, and worked a full shift—including aiding in an actual arrest—before being unmasked.
  • “He was only 14 years old.” – Josh Dean [03:14]
• The city reeled from the revelation, and 14 officers were reprimanded; Vincent received probation and was grounded by his mom.

Obsession, Preparation, and the Youth Explorer Program ([05:14]–[06:41])

• Raised by his mother in Englewood, Vincent was “a police superfan,” obsessed with the TV show Cops.
• The Youth Explorer Program introduced him to police work, fostering not only his knowledge but deep desire and sense of belonging.
  • “That program changed his life...He internalized all of the training.” – William Lee [06:23]
• His successful imitation came from procedural fluency, timing (arriving during shift change), and unshakable confidence.

Pattern of Impersonations and Escalation ([08:17]–[09:43])

• The 2009 incident was not an isolated event.
• Vincent also impersonated a businessman and stole a Lexus at age 17, was found with a loaded gun, and served jail time.
• Later, he again pretended to be a cop at age 19, then as an adult, repeatedly snuck into police and security roles, unable to let go of the identity.

Psychological Profile and Motivation ([10:48]–[12:23])

• Vincent sought acceptance and the validation of being needed and skilled. His efforts reflected both deep-seated ambition and a lack of malicious intent.
  • “He just wanted to be accepted and prove his worth.” – William Lee [10:48]
• his impersonations—by his own account—often “to test himself,” lacked any intent to exploit or harm.

Obstacles to Redemption ([12:48]–[13:45])

• Repeated arrests derailed any potential for a real law enforcement or even private security career.
  • “Each subsequent arrest only adds to his record... it just makes that much harder for him.” – William Lee [12:48]

The Pattern Persists: Adulthood and Addiction to Impersonation ([14:37]–[21:49])

• Even as an adult (age 26), Vincent was again arrested for police impersonation.
• Matt Stroud’s reporting reveals the behavior is almost compulsive and an adrenaline-fueled “addiction”—Vincent continued stunts including picking up friends in CPD cruisers or CTA buses, seeking the rush and validation.
  • “He acts like an addict, but the addiction is not to drugs or alcohol. It’s to adrenaline...to doing something that he’s been told he can’t do.” – Matt Stroud [25:30]

A Complex, Sympathetic Figure ([17:15]–[22:48])

• Both Lee and Stroud, after meeting Vincent, describe him as personable, earnest, and diligent—a “chameleon” whose capabilities might have flourished elsewhere.
• Despite everything, even after prison, Vincent still dreamed of “getting his record expunged” and joining the force for real.

Systemic Failures and Societal Context ([23:33]–[28:32])

• Will Lee and Josh Dean reflect on how Vincent’s life is a case study in urban talent falling through the cracks—no criminal tendency, just unmet need, and wasted potential.
  • “There’s just nothing for them in the city and they just have no real outlets for that… a lot of kids fall through the cracks.” – William Lee [27:30]

The Chameleon Metaphor ([28:32]–[31:14])

• Vincent’s ability to seamlessly inhabit roles resonates with the show’s theme of impostors.
• The episode ends with a remark from Vincent’s friend, Dontrell:
  • “He was a Chameleon. He could be anyone.” – Dontrell [approx 30:45]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It really burned the city down for a couple of weeks just because of the improbability of it.” – William Lee [03:14]
• “If you truly act like you belong somewhere, people will just assume you do.” – Josh Dean [07:28]
• “It would be like if you showed up at an Amazon warehouse and just start doing shifts. You’re not trying to hurt Amazon. You’re just trying to send some packages off.” – William Lee [13:16]
• “He’s observant... a jovial fucking funny dude from the south side of Chicago.” – Matt Stroud [16:58]
• “To this day, this guy tells me how he’s going to police training... Like, this is something that is ingrained in his consciousness.” – Matt Stroud [21:58]
• “Are there systems that are set up to help somebody who’s addicted in the way that he’s addicted? Like, the system is not designed for Vincent Richardson’s.” – Matt Stroud [23:54]
• “He could have been a good cop... It just didn’t happen for him that way.” – William Lee [27:20]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Vincent’s first “cop” shift & unmasking: [01:47]–[03:14]
• Youth Explorer Program's role: [05:14]–[06:41]
• Pattern, escalation, and stints in jail: [08:17]–[09:43]
• Psychological profile & motivations: [10:48]–[12:23]
• Difficulties finding redemption or employment: [12:48]–[13:45]
• Return to impersonation in adulthood: [14:37]–[21:49]
• Reporters’ personal impressions of Vincent: [16:58]–[22:48]
• Reflections: urban opportunity, unmet need: [23:33]–[28:32]
• Chameleon metaphor & closing: [28:32]–[31:14]

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Tone & Style

• The episode balances wry humor, journalistic curiosity, and an undercurrent of empathy for a poignant, almost tragic Chicago story.

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Conclusion

Vincent Richardson’s story baffles and fascinates: both a symbol of aspiration thwarted by circumstance and a uniquely American tale of wanting so badly to belong that you risk everything just to play the part. Chameleon uses his saga not only to entertain, but to probe deeper questions about how we form identity, how society fails dreamers on the margins, and why sometimes being a chameleon is the only way to survive.

Transcript

[Josh Dean]

Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand. You get unlimited 5G data and hotspot, all powered by Verizon's 5G network. Visible is more than just a wireless plan. It's unlimited wireless designed to keep you connected with no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month. Or get the premium visible Plus Pro plan and save $10 on your first month. When you use promo code hack, tap the banner to switch. Today terms apply. See visible.com for plan features and network management details. Hey there Chameleon fans. It's Josh Dean, your host, here with a little message letting you know that we're taking this week off to celebrate America's 250th birthday over July 4th weekend. Actually, everybody needs a break now and again and we will be back next week, as ever, with a regularly scheduled new episode about a story that you will love. But in the meantime, I wanted to play one of my favorites from early in the season, so those of you who have been with us from the beginning will recall this. Maybe some of you who are newer to the feed and haven't made it back to the beginning haven't heard it yet. This is the story of an incredible guy, kid at the time from Chicago, who was so obsessed with being a police officer that he just couldn't wait to grow up and be one. So he pretended. Instead, it's the kid who couldn't stop playing cop. And we'll see you next week with a new episode of Chameleon. Have a great weekend everybody. I really appreciate you listening to us.

[Matt Stroud]

Campsite Media

[Josh Dean]

hello?

[William Lee]

What is.

[Josh Dean]

What do you want me to say?

[Matt Stroud]

Chameleon?

[Josh Dean]

Chameleon. On January 24, 2009, a relatively short, stocky, clean shaven black male named Vincent Richardson walked into the Grand Crossing Police Precinct on Chicago's south side and reported for duty. This was one of Chicago's most bustling stations, situated at the crossroads of three large and fairly active neighborhoods. He told the frazzled duty officer he'd been detailed from another district and was given both a police radio and and a ticket book. The duty officer also assigned Vincent a partner and a police cruiser, and the two of them put in a busy five hour shift in which they wrote some tickets, ran a bunch of license plates, and aided in the arrest of a man who'd violated a protection order. All in all, it was a great first day at Grand Crossing for Vincent Richardson, at least until he got back to the station and the captain on duty took a good look at his Uniform, the hat, the shoes, the shirt, the pants, the belt and rig. It was all standard issue. But upon closer inspection, Vincent had no gun or badge and there was newspaper stuffed under his Kevlar vest to fill it out. Which makes some sense because Vincent Richardson wasn't actually a cop. He wasn't even an adult. He was only 14 years old.

[William Lee]

It really burned the city down for a couple of weeks just because of the improbability of it. A 14 year old boy actually being able to masquerade as a police officer, that was just something that really stretched the bounds of reality.

[Josh Dean]

This is William Lee, then a young reporter and observer of this story that would capture the imagination of America's third, third largest city.

[William Lee]

Chicago Sun Times ran a photo of him right after the story broke. It was the first image of him. He's in the back of the police squadron and he is wearing what looks to be an authentic Chicago police uniform. Whatever the story was, it really put more fresh fuel on that fire because it was just like, how is this possible? How did this happen? There were way more questions than there were answers. So I just, I couldn't control myself with the story. It was just like, I have to know what is it?

[Josh Dean]

As in who is this kid and how on earth did this even happen? What he and other reporters would learn in unpacking this almost unbelievable tale went so much further than they could possibly have suspected. This is Chameleon, the show about people who pretend to be something they aren't. And I'm Josh Dean. This week the story of Vincent Richardson who just couldn't wait to grow up and become a cop, so he pretended to be one instead. The saga of Chicago's infamous kid cop after the break. This is Chameleon, the weekly. William Lee is now senior deputy metro editor at the Chicago Tribune. But in 2009, back when the so called kid cop story exploded, he hadn't yet joined Chicago's biggest newspaper. He was at a smaller paper and dying to know more. But this just wasn't his beat.

[William Lee]

A couple of years later when I came to the Tribune, it was set on my mind that I wanted to find out more about it because the story was still unresolved. So my mind was set. I'm going to get to the bottom of the story. I started going to his hearings at juvenile court and that's when I finally saw him in person. And he looked young, but he has one of those faces where you can never really tell his age.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent was short five' five at best and had what William calls a wrestler's build.

[William Lee]

He could have been 17 or he could have been 30. You just don't know by looking at him.

[Josh Dean]

By this point, reporters had pieced together his story. Vincent was from Englewood on the south side of Chicago and had been raised by his mom. He had no criminal record. In fact, he was kind of a police super fan. He watched the show Cops incessantly. So his mom signed him up for a policing initiative called the Youth Explorer Program, which takes kids from rougher areas and puts them into a kind of junior law enforcement program to show them what cops do. Every day, Explorers went on patrols, visited precincts, sometimes even helped real cops direct traffic.

[William Lee]

That program changed his life. It put him in touch with police officers who really showed him the camaraderie of what police work is and the friendship. And he really, I guess, internalized all of the training that he received, which

[Josh Dean]

would explain how he could look the part, walk the walk.

[William Lee]

Vincent's real key to success is just the fact that he understood enough procedure. He understood when to step into the moment. He came in during a shift change, and he just kind of stepped in and said, oh, I'm here to sit in. And to his credit, he made an arrest during his shift. He didn't tip off one person. All of the people who he interacted with, none of them said there was anything to set them off about him. It's improbable that a young teenager would come into a police station with an exact replica of a police uniform, know the codes, know the protocols, and can easily just step in. It buggers believe. And it really was just walking in. Exactly as the gears of the clock are moving, you're moving just so none of them touch you. That's exactly what he did.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent was, it seems, embodying the idea that if you truly act like you belong somewhere, people will just assume you do. His actions, ironically and unfortunately, did exactly the opposite of what he wanted. It got him arrested and perhaps set him on a path he just couldn't ever find his way off of. He got basically a slap on the hand, probation, and his mom grounded him. She even took away his PlayStation for a while. But now, instead of Vincent Richardson, star of the Explorer program, he was Vincent Richardson, kid imposter whose stunt embarrassed the mayor of America's third largest city and caused 14 police officers to get official reprimands.

[William Lee]

He just really wanted to show the world that, hey, I've got the training. Even at this young age, I have all the skills. Let me do it.

[Josh Dean]

There's something else you should know. That first mostly harmless incident was wasn't the only blemish on his record.

[William Lee]

One of the cases that was going on alongside the impersonation case was he dressed up in a suit and tie one day, went to a car dealership and was able to drive off the lot with a car by pretending he was a businessman who wanted to test drive a vehicle.

[Josh Dean]

It was a Lexus and he was still a minor. In 2011, he was picked up in his neighborhood in the stolen Lexus and found to be carrying a loaded handgun. He was 17, but because of his juvenile record, prosecutors charged him as an adult because he couldn't afford the $50,000 bond. Vincent was held in the county jail until sentencing. In the end, having spent months behind bars, the judge gave him time served. Then in 2013, when he was 19, Vincent was back on the cop beat, sort of. He was working two jobs, one at a McDonald's and one as a security guard. The next best thing he figured was to being a cop, but it just didn't scratch that itch. Here's the local station ABC 7 with the story. He first got caught when he was 14 years old.

[Matt Stroud]

Now, at 19, Vincent Richardson once again

[Josh Dean]

was arrested for pretending to be a Chicago police officer.

[Matt Stroud]

This time, prosecutors say Richardson walked into this CPD uniform store on the Northwest side wearing police looking cargo pants and a white shirt.

[Josh Dean]

The store clerk thought something about this young buyer who kept saying he was an Englewood cop seemed off and Vincent got spooked. He took off, leaving his wallet behind in the rush, the clerk called the cops and they arrested Vincent when he returned to collect it. This time, Vincent got 18 months in prison. He got out, got another security gig, then got himself picked up again by cops. Vincent was found to be wearing and carrying more police gear. He tried to tell them it was for his security job. They didn't buy it. He was arrested again, charged and locked up again for impersonation. It was around that time that William Lee was finally able to meet Vincent in person. No reporter had yet managed to get his story. They finally met once Vincent got out and was working at a local McDonald's.

[William Lee]

I found his address and I did a stakeout of his home. I went into Inglewood on a hot sunny day and I just sat on his block and waited for him to get home.

[Josh Dean]

Eventually, Vincent came walking up the block and Will introduced himself to a young man still barely out of high school, who it turns out, was sort of desperate to explain himself.

[William Lee]

His main motivation in his own Words was that he wanted to be accepted and just to prove his worth. I thought about it, just a young man at that age, 13, 14, you are trying to prove yourself, show that you can go to that next level towards adulthood. And he wanted to obviously, clearly jump some steps. But I think what's probably also missing is the sort of work that he put himself through to train himself for this. He was able to play the part of an adult.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent would tell William and others later that the kid cop thing at 14 wasn't his first rodeo. He said he'd actually worked numerous shifts.

[William Lee]

I don't know how many times he impersonated. Being a police officer. For a couple of reasons, Chicago police really snuffed out any efforts whatsoever to kind of talk about this case. I reached out to people who were working that day and many officers, people who worked on it after, and no one, absolutely no one, wanted to touch that story. It was very much an embarrassment to Chicago Police. He said that he did this as a seventh grader, and he told me that in a previous situation, he not only masqueraded successfully as a police officer, he got a squad car and took it up to his school and actually showed off some of the kids around. I think what was clear to me from the very beginning was that there was no malice. He wasn't trying to poke holes in security like how a child might do now, like they might do that just to put it on TikTok. He did it to test himself.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent was arrested at least three more times for versions of the same thing.

[William Lee]

He's always been someone who's able to keep his focus directly on what he wants, which is to be seen as someone who is a hard worker, somebody who can get the job done. At this point, I hope that he's able to do something with his life.

[Josh Dean]

But Will also understands that working in law enforcement might now be a long shot for Vincent.

[William Lee]

I think at this point, it might be very, very difficult for him to get Clarence to be a security guard. It would have to be unarmed. He's been just arrested so many times, so it doesn't help him. Each subsequent arrest only adds to his record. I think the public would be willing to forgive him and give him a shot, but each arrest just makes that much harder for him, because at the

[Josh Dean]

end of the day, Will kind of gets it. At least he understands the motivation, and he doesn't think it comes from a sinister place.

[William Lee]

It's close to mischief. But then even with mischief, there's no mischief as part of this because he was actually working. It would be like if you showed up at an Amazon warehouse and had the Amazon shirt and you just start doing some shifts. You're not necessarily trying to hurt Amazon. You're just trying to send some packages off. The question, I guess, is, why would you do that?

[Josh Dean]

Speaking of Amazon, Vincent claims he did that, too. Got a job as a manager just by showing up in a suit one day. He later told a reporter he'd made that up once he realized it might appear in an article.

[William Lee]

When I spoke with him, he was just out of custody. And at that point, he was pledging to turn over a new leaf, which was not impersonate police officers, but really try to study executive protection.

[Josh Dean]

He wanted to use his skills to get into private security to be a

[William Lee]

bodyguard, which was, I guess, the sort of golden apple holding. If you can't be a police officer, at least you can do protection for people and make a decent amount of money.

[Josh Dean]

That is how Will would have liked to see the story play out, with Vincent standing behind some dignitary giving a talk to the press or maybe walking behind a famous actor on a red carpet. But this isn't what happened in 2021. Twelve years after his first arrest, Vincent was arrested yet again for Impers a cop. Yet again. The difference this time he wasn't a kid anymore. He was 26.

[William Lee]

It's adorable, I think, when you're a teenager because your imagination runs wild, but when you're just an adult, it's just another sad adult.

[Josh Dean]

The kid cop second act as a grown up after the break. Welcome back to Camellia. It was Will Lee's column about Vincent that caught the attention of another reporter, Matt Stroud, who just arrived in Chicago in 2022 and was working as an investigative reporter for the Better Government Association.

[Matt Stroud]

He had written some stories about when Vincent had gotten arrested again in 2021. And I was just fascinated by the story. I was like, what's going on with this guy?

[Josh Dean]

When Vincent was arrested for impersonating a cop for at least the fourth time back in 2021, the local TV reporters just assumed that viewers knew what was coming. Brett and Erica, good afternoon. And we have been reporting on it for over a decade. Every step of the way. He was arrested several times as a teenager for impersonating a police officer. And it appears that he is at it again, facing those same charges. By now, his mugshot revealed a man with a receding hairline and thick beard. He'd been impersonating a Chicago PD officer on multiple occasions. He'd even been operating accounts on both Instagram and TikTok of himself in police garb with the handle VinceCpDSargent, using the hashtag copsoftiktok. This is one of his posts.

[William Lee]

Kinda getting ready for swash school. Then I looked in the back seat and I forgot I had. I don't think I'm gonna pass SWAT school.

[Josh Dean]

Matt decided to go right to the source, to Vincent, and began to write to him at the medium security Big Muddy River Correctional center, where he was serving his latest sentence for that 2021 impersonation charge. Vincent wrote back a very long letter.

[Matt Stroud]

It was like him talking about what a great person he was and how he had moved on from this and he had truly figured himself out. And so we kind of went back and forth over letters, and they would give you one conversation that lasted 20 minutes every week.

[Josh Dean]

Those conversations would form the backbone of a very long and colorful feature Matt wrote for the online tech magazine the Verge. Like Will Lee, he liked Vincent a lot.

[Matt Stroud]

He's observant, he's fun to talk to. When he smiles, it's like, funny. Like he's a jovial fucking funny dude from the south side of Chicago.

[Josh Dean]

It didn't take Matt long to recognize in Vincent the kind of person who could fool a precinct of hardened cops at age 14.

[Matt Stroud]

The guy walks big. He stands with his shoulders tall. His back is straight. He's only five foot five. And so he says, you got to walk bigger than you stand tall. He had been pulled over by police officers before. He was watching cops a lot at the time. And so he's like a chameleon. His best buddy said he's like a chameleon, and he totally is. And so I totally believe that he was able to pull it off. I do not give credit to the Chicago police for missing this, but I understand how they did it. Vincent is a very convincing human being.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent told Matt what he'd told Will, that the first famous incident was not his first time playing cop. Far from it. He'd done it many times, he said, and he'd used the Explorer program as his way to study the art of being a cop. How they walk, talk, interact, the rhythms of a station house. But there was a new twist to the story. Vincent told Matt Stroud that he hadn't cooked up some master plot to play cop. He just sort of fell into it. He said that one day that winter, he'd gone to a precinct as part of the program, as he had plenty of other times he wore his Explorer Uniform under a coat and beanie. And a new duty officer just assumed he was a cop. Gave him a radio, a ticket book, and a partner. And Vincent just rolled with it.

[Matt Stroud]

According to him, he was able to get a partner and go around in a cruiser and do the stops, whatever, and nobody caught him at the end of the shift. So he kept going back for his shift. He told his partner what his schedule was, and he would go back after school and just do this. And he said this was going on for weeks before the infamous day when he was caught doing this.

[Josh Dean]

Chicago pd, of course, denied that this was true, just as they denied it to William Lee. They also refused to release any records about his cases. But as Matt himself wrote in his feature, the thing about talking to someone who's notorious for misrepresenting themselves is that it can be extremely hard to believe anything they say. So who knows which version is true? Only Vincent, in the end.

[Matt Stroud]

Vincent didn't exactly live in a structured environment. Like, he was able to do whatever he wanted most of the time. He went to school, from the sounds of it, talking to his mom. He did fairly well in school. He was astute, do all his work, but he was also leaving the house all the time. I think there's five that are documented where there's actually police reports to describe what happened. And there are a whole other bunch of incidents that he described and his friends described that aren't on the record. He would have a situation where he got caught impersonating a police officer. Everyone would be like, what the fuck are you doing? He would serve a little jail time. He would get out. He would get on the straight and narrow and start work, go back to school, whatever. And he would eventually get antsy over the course of months, sometimes years, and then he would figure out another way to go to pretend to be a police officer again. It happened in all sorts of different ways.

[Josh Dean]

It wasn't always police officers either.

[Matt Stroud]

He did that initially. He impersonated a police officer. And then he realized that he could do that with pretty much any government official that he saw in his neighborhood. I mean, you see cops all the time in Englewood, and then you also see CTA buses. And so he would, like, dress up like a bus driver sometimes and go to the main place where they. The hangar. What do they call a hangar for buses? I forget. And he would talk to people there and work his way in and drive around CTA buses and go pick up his buddies in CTA buses and do the same thing with police cruisers. Like he Would pick up his buddies in a police cruiser, and then he would go and drop off the police cruiser after they had joyrided with it back where he got it so nobody would know. And then they would go home and have dinner.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent just couldn't stop himself. He had this unstoppable compulsion to pretend to be something he was not.

[Matt Stroud]

The weird thing about it is that every time that he would get picked up, it would be for doing something that was really inane. Directing traffic, like trying to guide people around car accidents. It would just come up again and again. This impulse never left him. And then when he's a security guard, he can pretend to be a cop whenever he feels like he needs it. And literally, it's times like he sees that a crash has happened in Englewood, and he, like, wants to divert traffic around it, and so he'll dress up like a cock and go into this street in direct traffic. You can't call him, like a superhero or anything like that, but, you know, I think his heart is mostly in the right place.

[Josh Dean]

At the end of the day, Vincent wanted to do something innocent, ordinary, Something that was useful to society. Even he felt he'd had a calling.

[Matt Stroud]

Imagine that you're somebody who makes a decision at a very early age about an interest that you have, or, like, a profession that you want to pursue, a career you want to pursue. Let's just make it a person who pursues what they're really about, and they're very young. And then someone tells you at 14 or 15 years old that the thing that you want to pursue is really outside of the scope of what you can do. How far are you going to go to pursue that? Even if someone tells you that you absolutely cannot do it, Vincent is the kind of person who's going to pursue that no matter what. And so, like, to this day, this guy tells me how he's going to police training is he's still trying to get his record expunged so he can become a police officer. Like, this is something that is ingrained in his consciousness. Like, it is a pursuit that he has, and so he'll probably do it until he dies.

[Josh Dean]

I would imagine Matt became so close to Vincent that he was the guy who picked him up from the prison when he was finally released.

[Matt Stroud]

I remember driving back from the prison and my first reaction being that this is a guy who's upset about having wasted a whole bunch of time doing something he didn't want to do. I don't think that he's contrite for impersonating police officers. But he understands that he did it in the wrong way and that he has this roadblock. He doesn't want to say yes to that roadblock. He wants to find a way around it. And that's the way his personality is. Like, I'm going to figure out how to do this.

[Josh Dean]

But he'd also been struck by something else. That this could have turned out so differently for Vincent, and I think in

[Matt Stroud]

other professions or other circumstances, if he had grown up in a different circumstance, that might have been pushed along and helped in a different way and nurtured in a different way, and instead it wasn't. And he was turned into this spectacle

[Josh Dean]

because channeled differently, this commitment, this desire to achieve something could have taken him in a very different direction.

[Matt Stroud]

I think that he has real business acumen and I think he has the kind of I'm going to solve this no matter what mentality that is really useful in business. And I think the people who he's worked with, at least the folks that I've talked to, talk about him as being diligent and hard working. If he were in a different industry, if he were in a different circumstance, if you were in a different part of the country, in a different neighborhood of Chicago, I think his impulses would be seen as really strong and he would be given a lot of credit and he would probably be rich. But the circumstances aren't what they maybe should be. And so I think about that a lot with him. Are there systems that are set up to help somebody who's addicted in the way that he's addicted? Like the system is not designed for Vincent Richardson's. And so I find it really compelling to follow him and be as encouraging as I can without encouraging criminal activity, because I think he's a really good guy and smart guy and man, what a. What a weird set of hurdles he has set up for himself to overcome.

[Josh Dean]

And who knows? Vincent may still find his place. Maybe somehow he'll even get that dream job.

[Matt Stroud]

Also, he keeps talking about how he's still age eligible to be a police officer and still working on getting his record expunged, which could happen, I suppose, but good luck.

[Josh Dean]

After all that's happened, this does seem unlikely. And maybe, sadly, this won't be the end of his days impersonating cops and other officials either.

[Matt Stroud]

There is this impulse that he always has that he's going to get bored and he's going to want to get back into something that will allow him to experience adrenaline in the same way that he was getting it as a police officer. And so I'm very curious to hear what ends up happening with him. He acts like an addict, but the addiction is not to drugs or alcohol. It's to adrenaline. It's to feeling like he's doing something that's wrong and getting away with it. To doing something that he's been told that he can't do by like powerful people since he was a kid.

[Josh Dean]

William Lee kept in touch with Vincent for a while after he wrote that first article, but he hasn't heard from him now in at least five or six years.

[William Lee]

I just asked him if he was okay, if he was working, if he was trying to keep him straight and narrow. None of his answers really stood out to me at that point, to be honest. I just don't think he was done figuring it out then, nor does it seem like he's figuring it out now. The happy ending for him is where he can understand and feel his own self worth. I think that's a big key to all of this. He didn't feel as if he mattered or that he was shown that he could do things in the way that maybe we were as children. Show your parents that you can paint or you can draw or that you can dance or that you can play sports. I just don't know if he had that. And I think it's a lot of kids in his situation where they don't feel like they are raised up to show that, hey, you can do something you're good at, that kids really need that and they could spend their whole life looking for it. So I would hope that he feels that worth, that the world at large can see him for the productive person that he can truly be instead of this sort of sideshow that it's been. He could have been a good cop. He certainly could have been put on that track to do that. It just didn't happen for him that way.

[Josh Dean]

Vincent's story touches on something that is probably true for a lot of people, even if they don't all end up running around Chicago dressed as cops, writing tickets and directing traffic.

[William Lee]

I've written a lot about the demographic changes in Chicago. A lot of African Americans have left as a result. They've lost a lot of political power. And there's a lot of kids who still live here, but they don't necessarily have the resources and the things to do. You can tell a good school system or bad school system by can you take a kid who's a genius, who's talented, and funnel them through to success, even if they're in a bad situation. And I think this Vincent situation kind of shows that a lot of kids fall through the cracks. A lot of kids with talent, a lot of kids with ability and hard working ethic. There's just nothing for them in the city and they just have no real outlets for that. And I think that is as true today as it was then when he was a kid. And this person has no criminal record and no background. That's a person who should be using their abilities for something else. And right now, I just don't think there's anything for them to be able to use that ability. They're not getting the city, state and county jobs.

[Josh Dean]

I've covered a lot of crime stories, including lots of stories that involved killing kids. But Vincent Richardson's tale is in a galaxy of its own. He was an anomaly. A shy, undersized South Chicago boy with wide eyes, broad shoulders and peach fuzz, who more than anything, wanted to be a cop. When many young men of color across the country are expressing discomfort or outright distrust of law enforcement, Matt Stroud put this cognitive dissonance on a slightly different way. To him, Vincent embodies a truly puzzling contradiction. The criminal who wants so badly to be a cop that he's willing to go to prison for it. At the very end of Matt's story, he chews on the idea of what Vincent was ultimately trying to do, consciously or otherwise. He didn't quite land on an answer, but he did circle around the notion that when you grow up in a situation where life seems to work against you, where the systems don't feel set up to help, you might have to break some molds. And one way to do that is just to be someone else. Matt ultimately found and spoke to one of Vincent's childhood friends. His name is Dontrell. Who Matt asked him, do you think Vincent is really? Here's what Dontrell said. He was a Chameleon. He could be anyone. And he was being a cop to expose how simple it was to cross the cross over. He was showing us something about ourselves. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audio Chuck. It's written and hosted by me, Josh Dean, and produced by Joe Barrett. Our associate producer is Emma Siminoff. Sound design and mix by Tiffany Dimmack. Theme music by Ewan Leitrimuin and Mark McAdam. Our production manager is Ashley Warren. Campside's executive producers are Vanessa Grigoriadis, Matt Sher and me, Josh Dean. And finally, if I can ask a few favors before sending you on your way today. Please rate, follow and review Chameleon on your favorite podcast platforms to help spread the word. I know everyone says this, but it's true. Ratings and reviews really do help, and if you have any feedback, tips or story ideas, you can email [e-mail] or leave us a message at a special number We've set up, 201-743-8368. Dial one from outside North America. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

[Matt Stroud]

I think Chuck would approve.