JEFFERSON PARK — When Angelo Butler was 6 years old and his grandmother asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he told her right away: "Cop."
Now 14, his answer hasn't changed.
Thanks to the officers of the 16th Police District in Jefferson Park, Butler — a lifelong sufferer of cerebral palsy, which confines him to a wheelchair — got his wish Wednesday.
Dressed in a regulation CPD uniform, complete with a custom nametag, Butler filed in with 15 officers for roll call at the 16th District station, where Cmdr. Roger Bay named him an honorary officer of the Chicago Police Department.
The event came together in less than a week's notice, after Officer Patrick Doyle, a friend of Butler's family, offered to give the boy a full tour of the station. Bay told Butler he could be part of roll call, and the commander would announce the honorary title.
But what happened after that took Butler by total surprise.
Lt. John Garrido III, conducting a uniform inspection of the officers, stopped at the end of the lineup.
"Officer Butler, your uniform is not up to code," the lieutenant said. He then reached back and pulled out an official CPD cap and junior police badge, to complete the outfit. Butler beamed in disbelief.
"He always watched those cop shows, and he was totally enamored of them," Christine Butler, Angelo's grandmother, said after the roll call. When Christine got Angelo a CPD cap last year for his birthday, she said, he was quick to point out that it didn't have blue-and-white checkers, an iconic marker of authentic CPD caps.
"He really knew his stuff," she said.
But Angelo didn't just look the part. After he got his new cap — checkers and all — the officers brought him to Merrimac Park for an assignment.
Lining them up once again, Bay told each officer how they'd be spending their shift.
"Officers Doyle and Butler, you'll be patrolling the park today," Bay said when he reached the end of the line. "We usually don't have too many problems out here, but that will be for you to make sure."
His twin brother Alex then wheeled him around the park, and afterward Angelo signed a police log saying he'd made the rounds.
Putting this new officer on the beat, Garrido said, was more than just a gesture.
"We're all about building relationships with people — that's what community policing is, really," Garrido said. "So any time we can do something in the community to make someone feel good, we try to do it."
To Christine Butler, the day had gone well beyond making Angelo "feel good."
"He's so happy, I can't even put into words what this means for him, for all of us," she said. "As a grandmother you just want to see your grandkids succeed, and that's what he did — he showed that kids with disabilities can have dreams, too. And sometimes they come true."
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