The Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Life have joined together to offer Wichita Police Officers another method of reaching youth – baseball cards.
"Handing out the baseball cards to kids gives us a way to interact with them in a positive way," said Officer Morris Floyd, Wichita Police Department Community Affairs. "It’s another avenue to get out safety information."
There are 27 different cards, and a new card is introduced each week. The last card will be issued Sept. 24, 2001. The back of each card features not only information on a Royals player, but a safety message as well. For example, Carlos Beltran’s card says, "Weapons don’t belong in school. Tell a teacher if you see one," and Mark Quinn’s card says, "You are special. Make good choices even if it’s hard."
"When I was working as a beat officer, there were times when I would stop to fill out some paperwork and kids would run up to my car and ask for the cards," said Officer Morris. "I always used those opportunities as a learning experience. I would get out of the car to hand out the cards and encourage them to stay in school and not use drugs."
The Community Affairs section of the WPD has made the cards available to all the beat officers, Community Policing Officers, and detectives for distribution. The cards are also distributed by police officers at special events such as Riverfest, the McConnell Air Show and bike clinics.