This New Boutique Has Flare : Retail: Catering to public’s interest in Beverly Hills and emergency personnel, police and fire departments will open a shop.

Rodeo Drive, a street famous for its “If you have to ask, forget it” prices, is about to get a new novelty shop. And while this Beverly Hills boutique won’t feature designer names, it will offer merchandise with an attitude.

Beginning Saturday, the Beverly Hills police and fire departments will be the draw in a new outlet called the Department Store, a specialty shop down the street from Tiffany & Co. and a few doors from the Chanel Boutique and Yves Saint Laurent Boutique.

The small shop, decorated with flashing stoplights, uniformed mannequins and a jail cell door, will cater to the public’s fascination with both Beverly Hills and emergency personnel. Clothing and toys will feature the names and logos of the Beverly Hills police and fire departments and the store will be co-owned and operated by their unions.

“People stop at the station on a daily basis, asking for anything that says Beverly Hills,” said fire Capt. Stan Speth, president of the store’s board of directors.

Similar shops selling New York Police Department paraphernalia have thrived, said Judie Fenton, a Beverly Hills resident and secretary of the corporation formed by the unions for the store. And the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department also have retail outlets selling an array of merchandise.

The money the shop earns will go to supplement the medical retirement funds for both the police and fire associations, said fire Capt. Tim Scranton, president of the Beverly Hills Firemen’s Assn.

Det. Joe Chirillo added that the store will not only improve the association members’ medical benefits, but will also be a positive public relations move for the departments.

“It’s good all the way around,” said Chirillo, another member of the store’s board.

The store will offer the traditional--baseball hats, sweat shirts, pants and coffee mugs, all emblazoned with a variety of police and fire logos. One T-shirt depicts a barred jail cell, with the words Beverly Hills Bed-n-Breakfast.

For the kids, the store will also sell stuffed toy bears clad in uniforms, motorized squad cars, fire engines and ambulances. And for the youngest of police wanna-bes, there will be the vinyl “Beverly Hills Cop” baby’s bib.

Soon to come will be terry-cloth robes embroidered with the words: Stolen from the Beverly Hills Jail, and T-shirts with a sketch of a ticket that reads: “It is better to give than receive.”

But for all the store’s offerings, it will not sell items some customers are sure to seek.

Weapons, badges, the departments’ official patches and the jackets used in police raids will never be sold, out of concern that people will be able to misrepresent themselves as police officers or firefighters, Chirillo said.

So, the store is limiting its merchandise to items that are harmless.

“I think the people in Beverly Hills are savvy enough to know that real cops don’t show up at someone’s door only wearing a police T-shirt,” Chirillo said.

Already tour bus companies have said they will direct their groups to the Department Store, pleased that their customers will be able to buy an affordable T-shirt on Rodeo Drive, Fenton said.

Besides the vast tourist market, police and fire officials said they are confident Beverly Hills residents will also want to buy items with the hometown name.

The associations did a two-day test market recently, selling department paraphernalia at a local community fair. Sales were brisk and customers praised the idea of offering items with the police and fire department logos, Speth said.

So far, the initial investment in stocking and setting up the store has been under $10,000.

The owner of the property donated the retail space rent-free for six months while legal advice and work has been provided by community members, Chirillo said. And former Beverly Hills Mayor Max Salter, owner of his own chain of stores, supplied the budding retailers with merchandise racks and fixtures.

But if the Department Store fails as a money-making venture, the new shopkeepers agree that they won’t be out on the street.

“We’ll still have our day jobs,” Speth and Scranton said, laughing.