Boy pleads innocent to charge

CHICAGO (AP) — A 14-year-old aspiring police officer who allegedly donned a uniform and managed to go on a real traffic patrol pleaded innocent Monday to impersonating an officer.

The muscular teen, standing about 5-foot-3, appeared glum in juvenile court. Judge Andrew Berman ordered that the boy remain in custody for at least several more weeks because he could pose a danger to himself.

Outside the courtroom, a recent 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 he did last weekend, said the Rev. Roosevelt Watkins, who said the teen lived with him last year after his mom kicked him out.

“He has good intentions, good desires, good aspirations,” Watkins said. “He’s just going about it the wrong way.”

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.

The teen went so far as to stuff magazines in his shirt so it would appear he wore a bulletproof vest, a prosecutor said Monday. 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.

Police have said the incident constituted a serious breach of security, adding they are reviewing procedures to ensure something similar can’t happen again. Discipline may be possible after the investigation is complete.

The child, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, is obsessed with police dramas on television and with playing computer games where police figures chase criminals, said Watkins, who is pastor of Chicago’s Bethlehem Star Missionary Baptist Church.

Berman said he wanted a mental health report done soon — a psychological evaluation Watkins said he welcomed.

Neither of the teen’s parents appeared at Monday’s hearing, said Watkins, who stood next to the boy during his appearance and also answered several questions from the judge.

Watkins said the boy only returned to live with his mother last month but left again and stayed at a shelter around the time his mother filed a police report alleging the boy had hit her. Prosecutors told the judge there were two warrants for the boy’s arrest as of the weekend, including one for domestic battery.

The teenager was well-behaved and never violent or abusive when he lived with him, Watkins said.