What if the guy in the trunk was actually the cop?

How would that even be possible based on the events of the story?

Dispatcher would know the sheriff's voice as he was shown calling her a few times. What could have been used is if the criminal tried to convince the kids he was actually the sheriff as part of his "rescue me con." Wasn't needed though.

That would be an interesting layer to the story, but it doesn't make sense.

The sheriff calls dispatch a couple of times on his cell phone, the dispatcher would have recognized an unknown voice, he knows police codes and lingo as shown when he makes the phony call in when he gets pulled over, etc.

There's just too many things that point to him actually being a cop, and a dirty one at that.

So if the guy in the trunk was a cop...then why wouldnt he just take the car and drive back to the town with the kids instead of trying to kill Bacon...the stupidity of some people just amazes me....

~If the realistic details fails, the movie fails~