LAPD Helps Grant Wish to Boy Battling Cancer

Sirens were wailing and lights flashing when Travon Allen pulled up for his first day on the job.

The 15-year-old Miami boy, who was diagnosed with cancer in September, had one wish: To meet Los Angeles police officers. On Thursday, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks made Travon honorary police chief for the day.

After Travon and his family were flown to Los Angeles by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, three police cruisers escorted them to Parker Center in downtown. Parks then presented the teenager with a cap, T-shirt and police badge.

“Congratulations, now I can go home!” Parks joked.

Travon, who wants to be a police officer, said he dreamed of meeting Los Angeles officers and visiting the city.

“I figured this would be the best chance I would get,” he said, looking at some of the officers around him. “I like having power!”

Travon went for a helicopter tour of the city with the LAPD’s Air Support Division and spent the afternoon at the Police Academy.

“This is the kind of thing that makes it worth it to get up in the morning,” Parks said. “We’re glad he chose to come to the best department in the U.S.”

Travon’s family said the trip was a bright spot after he spent an arduous winter in and out of the hospital.

“I think this is tremendous for him,” said the boy’s grandmother, Veronica Allen. “I just want him to enjoy himself and have a good time. He deserves it.”