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Police collection on the cards
Tuesday 3rd March 2009, 9:00AM GMT.
A new craze could be on the cards for Shropshire youngsters.
West Mercia Police is launching Cop Cards, similar to Top Trumps, with a full set of 30 cards for children to collect.
The series includes a picture about a department of the force’s Shropshire Division, with information about it and some safety advice.
The cards, which are aimed at eight to 10-year-olds, cover everything from police dogs to the force helicopter and forensics to crime prevention.
On the back, they feature a small part of a bigger picture, which will be revealed when all 30 cards are put together in a clear plastic holder.
Sergeant Ed Hancox, who has developed the game, said children would not be able to request a specific card, but would instead be expected to trade and swop with their friends until they have the full set.
He said: “This is a great way of engaging young people – who can sometimes feel a little bit nervous or scared of the police – with their local officers.”
“Hopefully the cards will not only help us explain exactly what sort of things the police do, while delivering important safety advice, but will also encourage children to feel safe and comfortable talking to police and community support officers.”
The cards will be launched in three stages at two-week intervals, with the first 10 now available.
He said: “The first youngster to come into their local police station and show a full set of Cop Cards will get a gift voucher as a prize.
“We also have 25 mugs with a cuddly toy Spike, the road safety hedgehog, inside for runners up.”
Cards will be available from community support officers and the front counters of police stations.
They will not be available from police stations in Telford & Wrekin, as this is a separate policing division, but youngsters can still collect them from elsewhere in the county.
By John Kirk
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So why are Telford and Wrekin Police not joining in the fun?
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What next Top Crims cards featuring wanted Criminals…… Come to think of it that’s not a bad idea!
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This probably wont be published but i need to get this out.
Well done there. First start on swapping cards and then games in game shops and then onto DVDs copying with the copyright infringement. The put the cuffs on them.
Also they not doing it in Telford and Wrekin but the kids can still collect from other Shropshire police stations so kids in Telford and Wrekin who have these cards may get beat up for their cards so someone else can get a prize! WHAT A GOOD IDEA HEY?
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Paul: What a great concept, Top Trumps – Criminals.
Now, would Ronnie Kray trump Ronnie Biggs?
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This might be better aimed at 5 – 7 year olds. I can’t see a 10 year old wanting to do this to win a gift voucher/mug/cuddly hedgehog…
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In response to Lucy W, I can confirm that Ronnie Kray [aka The Colonel] would indeed trump Ronnie Biggs. I’d certainly like to have “Mad” Frankie Fraser in my deck!
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Another pathetic attempt to get people to be more ‘Cop friendly’ perhaps if they spent more time actually doing their jobs, and less time wandering about aimlessly, coming up with ridiculous ideas like this or hounding the innocent people might be more willing to accept them.
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Much more fun than catching criminals and a lot less dangerous.
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H. St. John Peasbody: I’m a bit rusty on Top Trumps but I thought each card had different catogories that you chose?
Ok so Ronnie Kray would win on years served in prison, but surley Ronnie Biggs’ jail break trumps that?
Of course Mad Frankie will beat anyone for years served in prison/mental institution.
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typical labour doing PR stunts when they could pay for more bobbies on the beat
conservatives will cut your taxes and get more bobbies on the beat by getting rid of silly initiatives like top trumps
we would cut out paper work and human rights and give kids a clip round the ear like when i was a lad, proper coppers doing honest work breaking criminals skulls with their truncheons thats what we need
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And this is the sum total of the officers £40,000 a year income? I expect he’ll get a commendation for this, they seem to dole them out today for anything.
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Hear, hear John Smith. The Divisional bosses try to outdo one another to get the favour of the Chief to see who is the one with the daftest idea. This is just a rehash of a similar scheme many years ago.
In the old days, coppers brought themselves to the notice of the Superintendents by detecting crimes and making good arrests for crime and villainy. Nowadays, they wouldn’t know where to start to detect a crime and an arrest is something that they toss a coin for.
In fairness though, they are very good at deciding the flavours of what lollipops to hand out and allowing young kids to wear their caps and helmets which they don’t wear very often.
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Ah ! Mr Smith aka Mr Negative, you just had to critisise didn’t you ?
Get a life please, these guys are trying to make some sort of effort, unlike yourself.
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may i please play my joker
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Well said Steven, also turn your attention to our Daniel loving friend “tory boy” .. He is quite amusing !
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An interesting suggestion, I wonder if there are any sections of the service who are not represented by the cards? Presumably them being an equal opportunities employer I wonder how they’d get round that one.
Why snipe at something radical, let’s give it a chance then assess whether it’s a gimmick or not.
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and ernest the policeman said to larry the lamb and denis the dachshund, now then you lads you cme along quietly. oh pleeeaaase sir said larry. it is disgraceful said mr growser!. i agree said the mayor.
this what the young children want on their radios and tv’s. a little respect for the law
ernest rules ok!
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Waste of time and money. And how many kids go to the police station apart from the tear aways that want locking up?
This is a scandalous waste of tax payers money and nothing else. Once again the police miss the point:
The public will support you if you do your jobs, protect the community, behave respectfully to those you are supposed to serve and once in a while solve a real crime instead of littering/driving offences.
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shame on the beurocrats who waste my hard earned taxes on this silly scheme
get more bobbies onthe beat, bring back hanging and get out of the E,u, crime solved
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I think this is a good idea. You have to remember that some 10 year olds first experiences otherwise of police is when one of their parents gets arrested. They’ll have been been told ‘to go out and play and not come back til midnight’ so that their parents can shoot heroin into their arm. It doesn’t appear to be labour intensive so whats the problem – some people are so unnecessarily critical.
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Diane, We pay Police good salaries to “Police”, not to think up silly kids games. When I was 10 years old, I scarpered at the sight of the Police whether I was doing right or wrong – it did me no harm whatsoever.
I totally agree with Andy, more dignity, more smart in appearance, more quicker response to public calls for assistance or reports of crime, no more major stations being closed at night and no more stupid “sociological” ideas from coppers who have the wrong ideas of the Police’s role in society and things would be a darned sight better. Our Police are a disgrace as things stand at present – and I have a number of family connections with the Police.
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Some of the people above seem to be missing the point of the cards, aside from the safety messages on them. The whole point to me seems to be about improving engagement and relationships with youngsters at an age before they start to become a problem or get into trouble. Surely by getting to know their local officers, that immediately creates more respect and will hopefully make these kids realise that the police are not the bad guys. How can that be a bad thing? Packaging it up in a game seems a great way to do that to me.
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Mia, you have totally missed the point – period.
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Ah yes. The big bad police who give us such a poor service. I forgot. Never mind all the people who get a great service from them.
Thing is, when we’re happy with something, we don’t run to the media to crow about it, do we? I know, I used to be a journalist! Nobody wants to hear about a service doing well. Bad news sells papers, not good news and all that.
Yes, like any organisation, they’re by no means perfect but as someone who also has family connections with a police force elsewhere in the country, I do know that the vast majority do the job for the right reasons and do their best.
Maybe if some parents took more responsiblity for dealing with their kids, the police wouldn’t have such a job trying to control them.
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Stuart – I think it is you that have missed the point and I suspect if u have ‘family connections in the police’ you’ll be off their Christmas card list. I think the police do a very good job in a very, very difficult and cruel world where every body ‘knows their rights’ and parents often do not know or care where their children. Police are the ones who have to pick up the pieces. I do not know how old you are obviously but it sounds like the time when the police could give you a good ‘clip around the ear’ then take you home when you would get another one from your father – now its a good possibility that the parent(s) will not even be home to greet the officer with their little cherub or be too busy watching tv and not really giving a damn that their child has been brought home by a copper! Blame the government for creating this environment who are the people who steer the police, social services, courts, probation, etc. I will not be voting Labour for the first time in my life. I guess I’m therefore partly to blame for the state of our country today.
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Mia, I will stand corrected and you will point it out if I am wrong. Was it only in the early part of last week that research by the Home Office or was it the Audit Commission that said just under half the population (was it 48%) had no confidence in the Police.
Knowing the Police though, in the “old” days that would have made them sit up and take notice, nowadays they will take no notice whatsoever and will carry on regardless.
They do not know why they are here.
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Diane,
It is not this Labour Government who tell the police to “grade calls”. Neither is it the Government who tells Chief Constables to close Divisional Stations after 10pm, neither do they tell them to dress up like something from another planet and scruffy into the bargain, neither do they tell them not to put coppers out on the beat. It is not the Government who tell lowly Sergeants in some obscure Police Station in the country to sit thinking up crackpot schemes when they should be out on the streets doing something constructive.
I blame this Government for many, many things and I won’t be voting for them because they have turned our society into something akin to that of a clockwork orange but one thing I don’t blame them for are those matters to do with the Police which only the Police have control over.
I suppose, if one wished to be ultra critical of the Government, we could blame them for not sacking a few Chief Constables and telling them to run a Police Force and not a load of sugar plum fairies.
The members of my family who are in or retired from the Police know my views and would you believe – some think like I do. And, when I go to Police functions, as I often do, many feel ashamed and dispirited at having to wait for their pensions. I know a number who would get out now if circumstances allowed it.
You continue wearing those rosy specs Diane.
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