What started as a traffic stop has led to an inseparable bond between a St. Ann teenager and a police officer.
When the young driver was caught driving without a license, the officer offered a solution to prevent the 17-year-old from repeating that same mistake.
It's a newfound respect that contradicts everything Mason Matney thought about police.
“All they do is give tickets and make your life harder than what it's supposed to be…Just avoid them. No one really liked them. If you see a cop on the street, keep your head straight,” he said he initially thought.
But a simple interaction can often change our perceptions. It was last month, on Geraldine Avenue in St. Ann.
Mason admits going a bit too fast behind the wheel.
“I was late to school,” the high schooler admitted.
"I pulled him over. It was the second time I had interacted with him,” Officer Benjamin Freet said.
In this case, the teen did not have a license or insurance. For some reason, Freet felt compelled to help the teen who was just trying to get to school.
"Getting written tickets or going to jail at a young age and being introduced into the system didn't really seem like that was the right idea,” he said.
So he decided to take Matney to take the test to get his driving permit.
"He's given me an opportunity. I'm not one to miss one, so I took it,” Matney said.
"He passed and he followed through with it though. That's what I was really impressed with,” Freet said.
Little did he know, the police officer was making an impression too.
"What I realized, they're just people. They're just people doing their job,” the teenager added.
"He's polite. He's respectful. Even in the midst of all of that, he could’ve been rude and he wasn't…I didn't want that attitude to change. I wanted to preserve it,” Freet said.
The teen loves working on cars, a skill the officer knows little about. Freet feels this experience propelled a mutual appreciation and an opportunity to learn from one another.