OXNARD : Police Cards Aim at Building Rapport

Oxnard Police Officer Johnny Gomez has spent 14 years as a beat cop giving out baseball cards as a way of making contact with kids.

Gomez guesses he has given out 500 to 1,000 cards a month from every team, for players like Rose and Strawberry, Canseco and Carter, Hershiser and Hernandez . . . Cady and Harris.

Wait a minute. Cady? Harris? What team are they on?

They’re not exactly baseball players, but Assistant Police Chief William Cady and Officer Richard Harris are the first members of the Oxnard Police Department to get their own baseball cards. Gomez said he hopes eventually to get cards printed for all members of the Oxnard force.

The idea, Gomez said, is to tap into the popularity among kids for sports cards and slip in anti-drug and anti-gang messages as well.

“We have daily contact with kids in the field,” Gomez said. “Cops are always giving them baseball cards or badge stickers. When we’re out by the park and nothing’s going on, kids are always coming up to us and talking to us.”

The police cards don’t have batting averages, win-loss records or even statistics such as arrests made or crimes solved. Instead, they feature pictures of the officers on the front and brief biographies and slogans on the back.

For example, Cady’s card urges kids to “say no to drugs” and “stay in school,” and mentions that his hobbies are golf and camping.

The card program is funded by donations from Oxnard civic groups, businesses and residents. The cost for 1,000 cards is $106, and Gomez said he has already gotten pledges to buy cards for 55 of the department’s 140 officers.

The cards are printed by Big League Cards of Teaneck, N.J., whose founder is Jim Bouton, the former New York Yankees pitcher and author of the irreverent baseball book “Ball Four.”

Big League spokeswoman Felice Golden said the company has printed cards for several police agencies. One of the first was Santa Clarita, which ordered 1,000 cards for each of his 140 officers and popularized the idea.

“We’re finding them a very useful tool to create goodwill in the community,” she said.

In Oxnard, the initial reaction of some baseball card experts was underwhelming.

Anthony Aparicio of Oxnard, 13, is an avid collector of football and baseball cards. “He must have 2,500 to 3,000 cards, all in a big box,” said his mother.

But Anthony just shrugged when he saw Cady’s card. Would he want to collect the department’s cards? Anthony shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess so,” he said. “Maybe ones that I know.”

Glenn Conant, owner of the HobbyTown USA franchise in Oxnard, said he likes the idea but finds the cards dull.

“I don’t think it will ever be much of a collectible unless it’s somebody who’s real controversial,” Conant said. “For me, it’s a little big blah.”