It was just supposed to be a quick lunch. I had finished a long shift, still in uniform, and picked up my five-year-old daughter, Zariah, from daycare. She loves anything I wear, so of course, she wanted to put on my old patrol cap and the toy police outfit we got her.
We stopped at Burger King for her favorite chicken fries and a shake. She walked around proudly, acting like she was in charge. People smiled—an older couple found it cute, a teenager held the door and even called her “officer.”
I didn’t think much of it. She sat beside me, asking about my job, like always. I told her about my partner messing up with the cruiser siren earlier, and she laughed so loud people turned to look.
That’s when I noticed a woman near the soda machine. Mid-thirties, holding her phone just right. She zoomed in—first on Zariah in the cap, then on me. I figured she was just curious.
I didn’t think about it again until the next morning. A coworker sent me a screenshot from Twitter. Someone had posted a picture of us, captioned: “Why are officers letting kids cosplay as cops in public? This is messed up.” Thousands of likes. Comments calling me unprofessional. Others talking about deeper issues. Someone even tagged my department.
By noon, Internal Affairs had scheduled a meeting.
I explained it was just my daughter playing. But they kept bringing up “public perception” and whether I understood “how this might be misinterpreted.”
They told me they’d decide next week.
And just now—I got another message.
This one wasn’t from work.