Want to Trade a Sheriff Block for 2 Captains?

Darryl Strawberry, move over. The baseball card craze has competition from other people who carry big sticks. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Santa Clarita on Friday began handing out card-like photos of themselves to local youngsters.

They might not command the million-dollar salaries of baseball players, but the station’s deputies, along with civilian employees and citizen volunteers, will now have their faces, mini-autobiographies and words of wisdom featured on the cards, which officials hope will soon be coveted collectors’ items among the elementary school set.

“What we’re trying to do is open up a dialogue,” said Capt. Robert Spierer, who came up with the idea after seeing a similar card carried by a Los Angeles police officer, who had it printed on his own.

“If we can get the kids when they’re younger to realize we’re not their enemies, we’re their friends, then maybe as they grow up they’ll be more inclined to take some of the advice we give them,” Spierer said. His card includes the notation, “Married with Children” and names his wife and sons.

Sheriff’s Department brass approved the idea in June and the Santa Clarita City Council--which contracts with the Sheriff’s Department to serve as its local police force--agreed to kick in half the $13,000 cost to print 288,000 cards.

The station’s 151 deputies and 31 civilian employees were given the chance to pose for pictures surrounded by the props of their choice and write up to 40 words, officials said.

A few deputies won’t have cards because they refused to pose, Deputy Patrick A. Rissler said. Some now regret that decision, he said. Many simply posed next to patrol cars and listed their resumes or hobbies. But others went to town, their tongues firmly in cheek.

“I have to come home at night and soak my feet from stomping out crime all day,” wrote jailer Steve Standley, who posed next to a Mutant Ninja Turtle poster.

Lt. Marv Dixon, or “Marvman,” as he called himself, posed next to two Bart Simpson posters and described himself as “Avenger of justice, overachiever and proud of it.”

Crime analyst Louise Ramirez was photographed wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat and holding a magnifying glass. She listed her role models: “Sherlock Holmes and Dick Tracy.”

Deputy Gordon Ewing stood by a piggy bank wearing a sheriff’s uniform. Another deputy struck a “go ahead, make my day pose” next to a cardboard cutout of Clint Eastwood.

Sgt. Howard Fairchild posed on the hood of a patrol car playing a Fender Stratocaster guitar.

A few ideas had to be jettisoned. A photo of a group of bare-chested deputies was rejected. But the irreverent sense of humor typical of peace officers was kept in check with a reminder that Sheriff Sherman Block would be given a full set of the cards, Spierer said.

(Block has his own card, taken from an official picture. Another card features a group shot of the Santa Clarita City Council, Spierer said.)

Some deputies used the cards as a forum to urge youths to wear seat belts, avoid drugs or gangs, stay in school or obey their parents.

Sgt. David Taplin even offered financial advice: “Obey the law and start saving a percentage of your money when you’re young.”

Although other departments, such as the San Diego police, have handed out cards with officers’ pictures, this is a first for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which heretofore has handed out pictures of professional football players, but never deputies, as a public relations gesture.

Officials are unsure how the program is going to work, but they envision children waving down patrol cars on city streets, eagerly hoping to add to their collection until they have a complete set of 138 cards.

The cards were eagerly snatched up Friday outside Old Orchard Elementary School by children such as 4-year-old Marika Imagawa, whose family recently moved to Santa Clarita from Japan. She clutched the card Rissler gave her in a small fist, studying it intently.

Charlene Andersson eagerly took a card for her 5-year-old son. “My son would just love those,” he said. “He likes policemen. This could be the latest rage, instead of Ninja Turtles.”