Sheriff’s Office gets special visit from 5-year-old boy who loves to play police

Trever Rickerson, 5, holds a Sheriff’s Office badge he was given during a visit Dec. 17 to a station in Arabi. With him are Sheriff James Pohlmann and Capt. Ronnie Martin.

Trever checks out the Sheriff’s Office bomb robot used to investigate suspicious items.

Trever Rickerson is a 5-year-old boy who loves to play police.

He had a special visit on Dec. 17 to a Sheriff’s Office station on West Judge Perez Drive in Arabi where he got a tour of the new building with Sheriff James Pohlmann and Major Chad Clark, whose officers in the Special Investigations Division are based there.

Trever, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 and rides a powered wheelchair, received some special gifts including a Sheriff’s Office hat, a badge like the ones deputies carry, police patches and other items. Trever also showed off how he maneuvers his wheelchair.

Then he was taken to the parking lot behind the station to check out the Sheriff’s Office bomb robot used to check out suspicious items. The boy then got to try his hand at driving the robot around the parking lot.

Also, a remote-controlled tiny police car containing Darren the Lion, symbol of the D.A.R.E. anti-drug program, arrived and soon there was race across the parking lot that was won by Trevor.

Did the boy like his adventure? “He loved it,’’ his mother, Brittany Cotogno Rickerson said the next day. “He has been playing police all day.’’