Police in BP unveil new trading cards
Blooming Prairie police officers will be handing out trading cards to children and anyone else who wants them throughout the city’s Fourth of July celebration and beyond. Officers Brad Busho and Dan Peach came up with the idea to strengthen relationships between police and members of the community.
-Officer Brad Busho, Blooming Prairie Police
Greg Skillestad. Jacob Peterson. Dan Peach. Brad Busho. Travis Belich. Rick Ellingson.
Do they play for the Minnesota Twins?
No, the Twins haven’t signed any new players recently. Actually, they’re local heroes serving the team of Blooming Prairie Police.
Chief Greg Skillestad and most of his officers are featured on new baseball-style trading cards that are part of the department’s community outreach program. For years sports heroes have been featured on collectible trading cards. Now, the local crime fighters will get their chance to shine while strengthening relations within the community.
“It’s another way to connect with kids in the community,” said Officer Dan Peach, who organized the effort with one of his partners, Officer Brad Busho. “We’ve always had badge stickers, but we thought this would be something unique and different.”
Building trust with children and teenagers, Peach said, is important in strengthening overall relations with the greater community. “We want to be approachable to kids and have them come to us any time they have an issue and not be afraid,” he said.
But it’s not only for kids. Peach said officers also welcome adults to strike up a friendly conversation and collect the cards as well.
“I thought it was a neat idea to put a face with the name,” Busho said. “We want to people to come up to us and be comfortable with us,” he said, adding uniforms can sometimes be intimidating for people.
Busho is known to stop at the city parks and play basketball with the kids while patrolling. He also coaches wrestling in Owatonna. He’s even bought ice cream cones for kids while serving the community.
“I just want to let them know we’re not bad people,” he said. “We’re nice, and we like to help them,” he added.
Most of the department’s nine officers (four full time and five part time) will be carrying the cards with them throughout the city’s Fourth of July celebration and beyond. The cards include their names, pictures of them in uniform and some interesting facts about them. For example, Officer Travis Betlach’s card discloses that he was awarded a Commendation Medal for his heroic actions during an active shooter incident while serving as a deputy in Freeborn County in 2020 prior to joining the BP force.
Peach said each officer picked a different background for their photo. Peach’s photo is taken with the city’s water tower in the background while the chief’s is shown at the Veteran’s Memorial.
“I wanted the water tower because it’s iconic and makes it more personable,” said Peach, noting that he isn't aware of any other departments in the area offering trading cards.
Peach added officers are paying for the cost of printing the trading cards out of their own money. KIK Graphics in Blooming Prairie printed the cards.
Unlike the sports cards, the police cards are available to anyone free.
They may not fetch the kind of money a Babe Ruth card would, but they certainly will be priceless to those who depend on these local heroes to keep them safe.