http://www.harvestnet.org/CAN/ap10.htm

Scientology Refuses to Change Security Guards's Uniforms Despite
Police Protest

If you are ever in Clearwater, Fla.,and see a man wearing a black
uniform with a shiny badge on the chest,an embroidered star on a
shoulder and a set of handcuffs on the belt, do not assume the man is
a police officer. He may just be a Scientologist dressed to look like
a police officer.

Clearwater city officials, and especially police department
officials, are dismayed that Scientology "security guards" have
adopted outfits that look strikingly similar to Clearwater police
uniforms. They are further dismayed that the guards are
conducting "training drills" in the downtown that look like police
chases. Virtually the only way to distinguish the Scientology
security guards from city police officers is that the Scientologists
do not carry firearms. The fine print on their insignia also
says "Church of Scientology Security."

Police and city officials fear residents and tourists may mistake the
guards for real police. The city attorney has sent a letter to
Scientology officials asking them to change to uniforms that would
easily distinguish the Scientologists from police officers, but
church officials have refused to do so.

Church spokesman Brian Anderson said people "feel safer" with the
church security guards in town. He also said that in Los Angeles,
church guards routinely arrest people and turn them over to police.
Anderson said uniformed Scientology security guards make as much as
one to two arrests a week in the Hollywood area.

A Los Angeles police spokesman said he knows of no relationship
between police and Scientology guards. In March 1994, Clearwater
Police Chief Sid Klein warned Scientology security guards after
they "arrested" a man in town. "I want to reinforce very strongly my
stand on Scientology employees taking the law into their own hands.
Church of Scientology security employees have absolutely no power of
arrest," Klein wrote in a 1994 letter to the church.

Police officials have said they fear someone watching a Scientology
training drill may think an actual police chase is in progress and
intervene, pos sibly injuring himself or others. Recently, for
instance, a man carrying a briefcase and a video tape pretended to be
a thief and was chased by uniformed guards, who handcuffed him and
brought him back to church property.

Last fall, a woman told Clearwater police a Scientology security
guard chased her through downtown shouting that he would kill her for
breaking her "billion year contact." The church said it was
an "expression" rather than a genuine threat. The woman told police
she was reluctant to call them because Scientologists had told her
that police work "hand-in-hand" with Scientology.

(From "Scientologists or Clearwater police officers?" by Cheryl
Waldrip, Tampa Tribune, May 13, 1996, Pinellas Section, p. 1.)