Chief R.J. Richardella Remembers a great Incident: with Police Officers trading cardsMaplewood New Jersey

Chief R.J. Richardella Remembers a great Incident: with Police Officers trading cardsMaplewood New Jersey

Kids Trading Peace Officers Cards!

At recess time in the yard at Our Lady of Perpetual Help grade school, Maple Shade, N.J., It would have been unheard of, circa 1959, to imagine that kids in the future would be trading Police Officers cards instead of baseball cards. We could not have grasped that, and Chief Richardella agrees.

In those days, the only Police we ever ran into in any way was a patrolman we nicknamed Bluto. He was a menacing mouth-breather who looked like a Wurlitzer organ that somebody had left a tiny blue cap on top of by mistake. We had no concept of the criminal justice system except the phrase we used, which was summed up by the phrase "Yikes, here comes Bluto."

Trading Cops Cards Versus Baseball Cards

We were after the likes of the great Mickey Mantle of the Yankees, and the almost godly Willie Mays of the Giants. We even hounded the great but unsung Granny Hamner of the Phillies. Who would have thought then that kids would someday clamor for Officer Paul Cymbaluk of the Cranford P.D., perched on his patrol bike? Or Detective Bill Behnke of the Evesham Township squad, deftly brushing his desk for fingerprints? Or Officer Jose R. Rodriguez of the Maplewood force, looking as if he just stepped out of a 1967 yearbook? Or his colleague, Officer John Tutunjian, looking bad, looking very bad, in that sleeveless police vest, muscular arms flexed? These are unbelievable images about Cops to contemplate.

"Well, kids will collect anything," said Nick Gregorio, the sales manager of Miramar Productions Inc., a printing company in Trenton that started the ball rolling in New Jersey when it issued a set of "Big League Cards" featuring the Hamilton Township police force. Miramar and other novelty companies have since issued sets for more than two dozen Jersey departments.

It was a real Police-card phenomenon and it started in California, where it took off fast but lagged in places after local politicians tried to get in on the act. Kids weren't interested in collecting mayors and tax assessors. New Jersey politicians however appeared to be letting the cops have their day, although a police chaplain or two could also be found in some sets of cards of the day.

Collecting Police Officers Cards a Great Idea

The idea of collecting cop cards was an ingenious blend of marketing, willing sponsors (local businesses sponsor individual cops and often hold autograph signings) and growing appreciation of the value of pro-active community policing. Cops were then expected to personally hand out their cards to kids.

At first, a few officers resisted because the idea sound too unusual and interesting. "Police are by nature skeptical," said Chief Harry W. Wilde of the Cranford Department. But Chief Rick Richardella and others say they amazed at how well it has worked. "Kids routinely stop our officers on the street to ask for a card," he said. "Now you see groups of kids in the center of town looking for the cops. It used to be the other way around, hehe as he laughed a little."

The cards acted as morale boosters and it worked out well. Peace Officers as a rule are very conscious of image (the occasional officer frolicking naked on a Washington hotel escalator aside.) Now, corpulent cops feel under siege. In some cop-card sets, the pudgy ones are the only ones posing behind the wheels of their cruisers.

Police Chief Richardella Recalls a Funny Meeting

Police Chief Richardella of Maplewood recalls attending a meeting with officials at West Point back in the day to discuss an Army leadership program for local police leaders. To welcome the chiefs, hospitable West Pointers had placed a box of Dunkin Donuts on the conference table. The Police were horrified. "We wouldn't sit anywhere near those doughnuts," said the trim Chief R.J. Richardella.

In Maplewood New Jersey each officer got a stash of 2,000 personal cards and is expected to hand them out one at a time. Local kids who collect all 51 cards qualify for drawings for prizes like bicycles and Giants tickets. The chief said that the Maplewood cards -- produced by Choice Marketing, a Pennsylvania company -- cost local sponsors $125 for each 2,000 copies.

The Police Officers now think the idea is cool -- but then Cops think spit-shined shoes are cool. What about the real arbiters, the kids? Aren't these things . . . well, silly?

"Oh no," insisted Kiera Simpson, 9, traipsed into the Maplewood station the other day to add to her set, now numbering 34. "You get to know the police. Besides, you could win a bike."

Her sister, 5-year-old Melody, added, "You trade the ones you have extra of for the ones you don't have."

Their father, Howard Simpson, said he liked the cards just fine. "Kids and cops start approaching one another on a personal level. I want my children not to be afraid of Police."

His daughters were out the door already, scrutinizing the card of Officer Ted Gnida, shown grinning wickedly as he writes a parking ticket.

"Got him," decided Melody.

"Trade?" said her big sister.

"No Way!" Melody said, "I am Keepin Him."

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