CHICAGO — A 14-year-old aspiring police officer who allegedly donned a uniform and managed to go on a real traffic patrol for hours pleaded not guilty Monday to impersonating an officer.
A guardian described the teenager as a bright boy who dreamed of one day becoming a police officer. He was detained two previous times for impersonating an officer, though he never managed to take the ruse as far as Saturday, said the Rev. Roosevelt Watkins, who said the teen lived with him last year after his mother kicked him out.
Police said the boy reported for duty Saturday at a South Side police station and was assigned to go on patrol in a squad car with an actual officer. Police have said he did not have a gun, never issued any tickets and didn’t drive the car.
He was detected only after the patrol was over five hours later, when someone noticed he wasn’t wearing a regulation star.
The boy once took part in a Chicago program for youth interested in policing, so he would have been familiar with some procedures and police lingo — helping him blend in, Watkins said.
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