With future aspirations to become a policeman, the 7-year-old second grader at Gowanda Central School District wanted to take a ride with school resource officer and Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s deputy Ben Shields in a police car. In a day in age where new technology is taking prominence and attention of the youth, Drezden Spire’s Christmas list was simplistic like no other.

“I had asked Ben if he minded giving Drez a ride and we decided to set it up as a surprise, so I wrote a note to the school and asked his teacher to stay quiet because Drez thought I was coming to do parent pickup and then Ben picked him up,” Melinda said.

At parent pickup on Dec. 22, the Friday before Christmas break, Drezden waited and waited. As the clock continued to spin after school, he didn’t realize his Christmas wish was soon to come true.

“Parent pickup was all over,” SRO Shields said, “and they called his name and I said, ‘Merry Christmas, buddy,’ we high-fived. He steps out, looks around, furrowed his brow a little bit looking around for his parents and didn’t see them. When he turned around, I took an old sheriff’s office uniform that I got and I put it on him.”

Submitted Photo Shields takes a selfie with Drezden Spire at Tim Hortons in Gowanda.

“He looked at me and his eyes just lit up. I’m like, ‘There you go buddy. Merry Christmas. See you later,’ and looked like I was going to turn away and said, ‘I’m just kidding man. We’re going for a ride.’ People were standing there, taking a couple of pictures and he’s all sorts of excited.”

Prior to taking off, it was a necessity to turn on the sirens, ignite the police lights and get accustomed to the blue and red flashing vehicle. Shields gave the officially dressed up Drezden his actual sheriff’s deputy star.

Deputy Shields prepared an hour-long adventure as Drezden transformed into deputy Drezden. Despite his age of only 7, he turned his gift into a real-life job. With all seriousness and a focused attitude, the duo took on the day’s events.

“If you’re going to be in law enforcement, the first order of business is Tim Hortons. We’ve got to get a cup of coffee, and he said, ‘I don’t drink coffee’ so I told him he can just get a doughnut then,” Shields recollected on the day.

Since it was a Friday afternoon, the Tim Hortons was packed. The suited-up Drezden walked in and took ownership of his new role as part of the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office.

“He came in there all proud as could be in his sheriff’s office uniform,” Shields said. “He got the vest, the whole 9 yards, and everybody’s like, ‘Hey buddy, is it your first day on the job?’ and he was like, ‘Yep. Brand new.’ and they said ‘Alright, have a Merry Christmas.’

“Then Drez said, ‘You too. Be safe out there. Merry Christmas.’ and it’s funny because I didn’t tell him that or anything. He just told everybody he talked to, ‘Merry Christmas. Be safe out there.”

The “be safe out there” line was something Drezden picked up while “on the job.” According to Shields and Melinda, Drezden always talks to Gowanda police officers and he is the neighborhood police.

Shields, after the coffee break, emphasized the importance of the job police offer to a community. Their service helps keep the area safe. The Gowanda SRO added that others also provide similar services to enhance the community like plows for roadways and driveways, ambulances for emergency medical situations and mechanics to help your vehicles get to and from.

Drezden’s grandfather, Nick Crassi, owns Auto Wrench Connection behind the village municipal building and the duo picked up a dozen doughnuts for the crew.

When they arrived to see Crassi, Drezden “was as proud as a peacock (while) at work,” Shields noted. While there, they talked to Gowanda police and ambulance, who share the same parking lot. As he left conversations, to no surprise Drezden said, “Merry Christmas and be safe out there.”

The fun and games came to a halt as Shields was called out to a “reported” suspicious person.

“We were dispatched to a suspicious person walking down the side of the road in a coconut bra and a grass skirt,” Shields said. “Drez said, ‘What? Really?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s weird right?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, it’s cold outside. Why would they wear a coconut bra?'”

The crime stoppers drove near the alleged location at the Collins Correctional Facility, but to no avail. With evidence coming to a minimum, it looked that Drezden wouldn’t find the suspect; however, Drezden had the idea to search for the man in nearby buildings or walkways.

Deputy Shields egged him on to develop his hypothesis and Drezden added to look for footprints in the snow and mud.

“Dude nailed it,” Shields said. “Nice job.”

Though no one was found, Drezden came prepared with no knowledge of the situation prior to the day. The car ride ended shortly thereafter, and a Christmas gift successfully came three days early.

“He doesn’t say much about it,” Melinda said. “He really thinks he’s a cop now. Ben calls him his little partner, so he officially thinks he’s a cop now.”

With intentions to give everything to Drezden to appease a merry Christmas, deputy Shields became a recipient as well. Once Shields saw the reaction Drezden had to the police car ride, he had to share it. The secondary videographer put his phone on record and later edited it to share with social media.

With 424 likes or reactions, 66 shares and over 7,900 views, the social media post gained a lot of positive attention.

“I’ve been in law enforcement 16 years … but you kind of get a little jaded,” Shields admitted. “Sixteen years of just dealing with the bad stuff, dealing with domestics, dealing with car accidents, dealing with deaths, and drunks and all of the bad aspects of society that to have the ability to do that and bring a little light to it and to have the response from social media, they say we need our youth to look up to law enforcement like this. That’s what my job is all about.”

After the ride, Shields added that he “felt like (he) was a little kid, again.”

The duties of a police officer are stressful and have been put under a spotlight. To some, mistakes reflect the group rather than the individual, which is something that Shields wants the reciprocal to occur.

“One thing, when a police office does something bad, the public judges all who police based on that one police officer’s actions,” Shields said. “What I’m hoping for is when someone sees that (video), they judge all police officers on that one video and Drez’s reactions.”

Shields also added some behind the scenes moments with Drez like teaching him that “every police officer in the world (would sing ‘Bad boys’), that’s all we do our whole shift. When we are not looking for bad guys, we’re singing, ‘Bad boys.'”

All in all, it was only an hour-long car ride, but it meant much more to the Gowanda second grader. Drezden, who will now be only more dedicated to his future in being a police officer, had a Christmas dream come true.

“The experience never would’ve happened without Gowanda School District being so supportive

of the SRO program and the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office’s top-notch program, it’s really a well-oiled machine consisting of eight SROs that do even greater things on the regular.”

Twitter: @Kuczkowski95

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