possible for the officer to avoid a situation where the person riding along may be in danger. The TV series Top Cops , which aired 1990-1993, once told the true story of the 8-year-old son of a police officer whose father took him on a ride-along after obtaining an exemption to the department's policy in which the minimum to apply was 14. During the shift, the officer was called to a bank robbery , in which the robber claimed to be armed with a live-wire bomb, and demanded the tellers take him to the vault. The boy, who did not understand the potential danger, was not harmed.