9-year-old police enthusiast gets surprised by Indiana officers
- Calvin Heiselmann, 9, is determined to become a police officer
- His father says they got him a police uniform costume to feed his passion
- Sgt. Clayton Taylor: Wanted to show Calvin the diversity of their force
(NewsNation) — Calvin Heiselmann, a police enthusiast, received a big surprise when some officers at the Fort Wayne Police Department came to visit him.
The 9-year-old decided he wanted to be a police officer after watching the show “Cops” with his family.
“He always talks about being a cop when he grows up and asks all questions all the time about what it takes to be a police officer. And so we knew the passion was already there,” said Calvin’s father Fer Heiselmann.
To encourage his passion, his parents bought him a police uniform costume, which they now say is hard to get him out of.
“It just feels comfortable and I don’t know why,” Calvin told NewsNation.
On Wednesday, some officers with the Fort Wayne Police Department stopped by Calvin’s house to take photos with him, give him his own badge and even let him sit behind the wheel of a cop car.
Calvin and his father Fer joined “NewsNation Prime” along with Fort Wayne’s Sgt. Clayton Taylor, to talk about the moment officers surprised Calvin, and what it meant for the family and the officers on the force.
“It’s important to make impacts on our community and starts with our kids,” Taylor said. “Calvin is a young Black kid, and he’s so smart and so full of personality. I wanted to show him the diverse makeup of our own department. And so when I brought some officers up, I brought officers up from every ethnicity.”
As for the visit, Calvin says his favorite part of it was sitting in the squad car, and he told all his friends at school about the experience.
“When I told them about my outfit and the badge, my school friends said that I’m a real officer now.”