SCRANTON, Pa. — When Scranton Police Officer Chris Hallock got a text from his police chief to see him about a special, secret mission, he didn't know what to expect.
"I went down to his office, and he was just sitting there with this."
His mission was to take four-year-old Deklan Flewelling from Maine on a tour of the city, showing him different landmarks like the county courthouse, the trolley museum, and of course, the police department. Deklan's dream is to become a police officer when he grows up.
His parents sent this letter to departments all across the country.
The cardboard cutout of him in a police uniform has made it as far as Hawaii and Alaska.
"We really didn't expect the amount of people who reached back out to him," said Crystal Flewelling, Deklan's mom.
Flewelling says her son used to be afraid of police officers.
"There was a certain situation where the police were involved, and he realized that they're not bad at all. And he said, 'I wanna be a police officer. I want to help people.'"
That's exactly why Officer Hallock says he wanted to be involved in this project and why it turned out to be a morale boost for the entire department.
"It's been a tough time for law enforcement in this country, so recruitment is tough, so you want to introduce people and show them this is a great, rewarding career and something you can make a difference in people's lives," said Hallock. "So you hope that by doing this for him when he gets older if he becomes a police officer, he remembers this, and then he does this type of stuff."
"It's funny, when you're in the academy, what you think of what police work is, and what you view as rewarding. You think you're gonna be kicking doors in and doing all these foot pursuits and all that, but when you get something like this - we sent him a care package of Scranton Police 'swag,' and to see his smile, and it all laid out in the photo, that was very rewarding. And just how his family thanked us and they said how he excited he was, it makes what you do for a living; it validates it," Hallock said.
While Deklan's goal right now is to become a police officer in his home state of Maine, if he ever does want to visit the Electric City, he knows he has plenty of friends in the police department who will welcome him.
"Absolutely, we hope he makes the trip so we can take the 'large version' of Deklan around and show him the city," said Hallock.
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