LONGWOOD, Fla. -- For Longwood Police, a recent traffic stop started like so many others. But it did not end how you might expect it when officers noticed an unrestrained child.

  • Officers buy driver car seat following traffic stop
  • Saw child in car unrestrained, wanted to help the man
  • Officer Bryant let driver go without ticket

After Longwood Police Officer Steven Bryant pulled a man over for making an improper turn, he noticed the driver's son wasn't properly restrained.

“He told me he didn’t have the funds to get the car seat. At the time he was driving up to St. Johns County, towards St. Augustine,” said Officer Steven Bryant with the Longwood Police Department.

At that point, he could’ve written the driver several tickets -- but he decided to do something else.

“My job is to protect, and I figured if I get a car seat and protect him, I am doing part of my job,” Bryant said.

So he ran up to Walmart and bought a car seat. 

“My parents always raised me that if I’m able to help somebody -- do it,” he said.

While Corporal Ryan Short installed the car seat, Bryant noticed the boy had a Ninja Turtles shirt.

“I love the Ninja Turtles, there’s one in my cop car, so I used that as a bonding thing with him,” Bryant said.

And he let the boy have some fun.

“In the picture he seems shy, but when we weren’t in front of the camera he was running around asking questions, inside the car asking where I keep the prisoners at or the bad people I take to jail – I showed him that, Bryant described.

He added, “I let him turn on my lights and sirens, and he thought it was just the coolest thing in the world -- his eyes just lit up.”

With the car seat installed, he let the father go.

“I think he was kind of expecting some tickets but I didn’t see the need. There was a bigger picture there, and we got the kid in the car seat, and that was the biggest picture for me,” Bryant said.

When asked what he hopes people take away from this story, he said he wants people to see that “law enforcement are a lot more positive than what is portrayed out in society right now.”

Officer Bryant says he didn’t do what he did for media attention, but he’ll take the positive feedback he’s received.

“It was just the right thing to do, and I think if people will start focusing on that I think it will change the perception law enforcement has.”

Officer Bryant says he and Corporal Short split the cost of the $50 car seat. But he says he would’ve paid even more to make sure the child in that car was safely restrained.