Massachusetts police departments using trading cards to connect with students
NORWOOD - Police departments in Massachusetts are building bonds with local students in a creative new way. Special trading cards are helping children get more comfortable with officers across the state, including in Norwood.
"I have all of them I'm just missing one," Norwood seventh grader Lorena Soares said.
She's been collecting the trading cards featuring local police and her school's resource dog for the past couple of years, starting when she was in fifth grade.
Collectible police trading cards
Officers in town each have their own cards as a way for students to get to know them. The initiative continues to grow in Norwood with students looking forward to collecting the cards.
School Resource Officer Geoffrey Baguma spends his time at Coakley Middle School. He says the cards have allowed him to create better relationships with students he sees regularly.
"It literally feels like the police uniform is taken down," Baguma said.
The most popular card at Coakley Middle School is Mustang Sally. The community resource dog even has special holiday versions of her picture.
Norwood police cards
Hudson Police Detective Chad Crogan makes the cards for departments all across the state. He says the cards have become increasingly popular in Hudson as well.
"I thought it would be a fun and exciting way to interact with the students and the community just to make trading cards," he said. "They really have flourished and grown throughout Hudson and a lot of other communities and police department."
The students have fun with the cards, but the real goal is making the officers seem more approachable, and in Norwood it seems to be working.
"It's an invisible bridge which is created when we hand out the cards and they receive that from us," Baguma said. "We're able to build a sort of friendship."
"Now I talk way more to Officer Baguma," added Soares.
Norwood students are looking forward to adding to their collections this school year.
For more information, visit Detective Crogan's website.