In 1998, a boy of about five gave his dad a card for Father’s Day. He wrote it in crooked handwriting and made a huge promise: “When I grow up, I’m going to be my dad’s partner and catch the bad guys and the thieves”.
His dad is Officer Gould of the Auburn Police Department in Washington. That year, they posed together at the window of a patrol car: the boy smiling in a denim jacket, the police officer with a mustache and the same proud smile of someone who already knows his son is looking up to him.
Twenty years later, on Father’s Day 2018, the promise still stood. The boy had grown to 1,98 meters and wore the uniform of the King County Sheriff’s Office. Getting such a giant into the seat of a patrol car was a feat, but they managed it, and recreated the photo with the same smile.
Auburn Police posted it as a tribute to a father and son who decided to walk the same street. Some childhood promises are forgotten in a drawer. This one ended with a badge on his chest.