For the sentence "She pretends to be a police officer by dressing up," the tense of the underlined verb is present.
The tense of the underlined verb in the sentence 'She pretends to be a police officer by dressing up' is present.
The present tense is used to indicate an action that is happening now or regularly occurs. In this sentence, the verb 'pretends' is in the present tense because it describes the ongoing action of pretending to be a police officer.
Other examples of present tense verbs include 'plays', 'reads', and 'talks'.