Las Vegas police lay cards on the table to recruit troops serving in Iraq

The Metropolitan Police Department is sending a bit of Sin City overseas, taking a gamble that troops soon to return to the United States might want to make Las Vegas their home and the department their new employer.

On Monday, police will drop off 16 care packages at Nellis Air Force Base to be delivered to Las Vegas police officers on active duty with the military, said Denise Kee of the department's community relations office.

Each package contains playing cards and poker chips with the department's shield, letters from local schoolchildren, newspapers and a note telling the officers that everyone at home is thinking of them.

The department hopes to do more than raise military morale: The packages also contain literature about joining the force, promotional DVDs and a reminder to department employees of the $500 bonus they get if they refer someone who enrolls in and starts police academy training.

"When they play with the cards, they are going to advertise," said Las Vegas police Sgt. Eric Fricker of the department's recruitment office. "It's something you do out in the open. ... It's something used all the time. It's a great value for our dollar because it's something that is going to be used over and over again."

Las Vegas police hope to hire 300 to 400 officers every year over the next 10 years, Fricker said, and to accomplish that, the department is increasing its recruitment outreach to military personnel.

The department places employment ads with the military publication "G.I. Jobs."

Military men and women make a good fit for police work because of their discipline and dedication and ability to work in a stressful environment, said officer Luke Jancsek, who spent 10 years in the Air Force and now works in the Police Department's recruiting office.

"Military people generally have a proven track record for staying out of trouble and committing to their enlistment," Jancsek said. "They are going to follow through with the academy. They are not going to quit on us."

The packages are expected to arrive in time for the holidays.

Seven packages will go to Iraq and others to New Jersey, where nine Las Vegas police officers are doing their pre-deployment training. Those employees are scheduled to leave for Iraq in the next few months, said Fred Haas of the community relations office.

The department collected donations from staff to pay for assembling and mailing the packages, Haas said.

The recruitment materials were covered by the department's advertising budget, said Jancsek.

"It's a morale booster," said Haas, who spent eight years in the Navy and was deployed to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s.

Police officers become like family to one another because they work at close quarters, but once they are deployed, "you lose contact with everyone," he said.

"This shows them we recognize what they are doing there and that we're thinking of them," Haas said.

Las Vegas police recently bought 1,000 decks of the custom playing cards, which show officers and police cruisers on a ledge overlooking the city's skyline, at a cost of about $2.60 a deck, Fricker said.

Limited funds kept them from having the face cards personalized, he added.

Apparently, there wasn't enough money to have Sheriff Doug Gillespie featured as the king of diamonds or some well-known criminal as the joker.

"We didn't have a lot of money," Fricker said.

Contact reporter Beth Walton at bwalton@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0279.