When it comes to recruiting future cops, the Minneapolis Police Department is willing to think small.
The City Council is expected to grant permission next week to allow a California toymaker to use the department's badge and logo on its Matchbox-size scale model squad cars. A council panel gave the idea an OK last week.
The licensing deal would bring the department's youth athletic program $1,000. But the chief value is publicity, according to department spokesman Sgt. William Palmer.
Despite the department's current budgetary mandate to shrink by 16 sworn workers through attrition, Palmer said the department soon will need recruits. Chief Tim Dolan told the council Wednesday that 98 sworn members of the department will hit retirement age by the end of 2014, or nearly one of every eight on a force that averages 47 years old.
Getting more exposure helps build the applicant pool, Palmer said. He cited himself as a case in point, recalling that his first exposure to the department while living in southern California came when it was featured on an episode of COPS, a long-running Fox television show.
Palmer said the toymaker recruited Minneapolis as one of a dozen law enforcement departments to be featured in the first rollout of the mini-squads this spring.
"I think it's the closest the city will get to its own action figure," Council Member Betsy Hodges said.
STEVE BRANDT
